Dripping Seconds
by Synesti
Summary: As retaliation from an event in Henry's childhood, Maggie is captured as leverage for Henry and his parents. The catch: They have three days to find her, as the kidnappers aren't interested in keeping Maggie alive. Definite Jaggie. Rated T to be safe.
1. Chapter 1

Dripping Seconds

Henry's point of view:

Jasper and I were walking from school, just like any normal day. Today had been one of the last days of school before winter break, and our feet skirted around piles of slushy snow that had already fallen.

"Henry, think fast," Jasper said quickly. He tossed a snowball at me and I caught it between my hands reflexively, dropping it to the ground where it splattered slightly.

Jasper muttered something angrily.

"What's that?" I said, trying to look innocent.

"Darn monkey boy," Jasper said again, this time smiling.

I smiled. "Do you think Maggie will be better soon?"

"Yeah, it's just a winter cold, you know. People get them all the time. Anyway, she'll probably want her homework," he said, gesturing to his backpack, where her homework from school today was sitting.

"You know Maggie."

"Regrettably, I do know her."

I gave him an evil looking smile. "Do you really?"

"Of course I know her; she's been my 'friend' for forever." His face was turning red.

"That's not what I meant. I meant do you really regret knowing her?"

He sputtered. "Well, she comes in handy sometimes but she's really quite annoying a lot of the time. Always controlling everything, that's not friendly behavior."

"I suppose not," I agreed. Maggie was a bit pushy, that was true. "Anyway, we're here." Jasper and I looked up at Maggie's house and picked our way past the snow to the front door. Jasper knocked, but nothing happened.

"Maggie's dad's at work, so it would only be Maggie home. Maybe she's sleeping." Jasper took out her homework and slid it through the mail flap on her door.

We turned and headed home, talking about what we were going to do that break. It would be my first Christmas in America. "Maybe we'll invite Maggie to a party," I suggested. Jasper rolled his eyes and nodded. His face was still red.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Jasper's point of view:

I don't really know why Henry keeps making a big deal about mentioning Maggie. It's annoying he's always looking at me to see how I'm reacting to whatever he said. I should have thrown the snowball harder at him.

Henry looked at me, seeming sort of sad. "Jasper," he started in a small voice, and then stopped.

"What, Henry?" I asked.

"I'm sorry for making you mad," he said earnestly. I couldn't be angry at him, so I smiled at him.

"Its fine, Henry, I'm not mad. Don't worry about it."

He looked relieved. "Is it always so cold in the winter?"

"No, this is a cold snap. Normally it's warmer, but not much. Look, we're home. We should get inside."

Henry and I got inside the kitchen and mad e ourselves some instant hot chocolate before starting on out homework. Soon, the phone rang. I picked it up, last time Henry couldn't figure out how to press the talk button.

"Hello?"

"Hello, Henry?"

"Yes?"

"This is Mr. W, Maggie's dad?"

"Yeah, is she okay?"

"She's not at home. Do you know where she is?"

"What do you mean she's not at home?"

"I came home today and the house was empty. The homework you left was scattered down the hallway. Do you know where she is?"

"No. We left the homework through the mail slot. She wouldn't leave, would she?"

"I don't know, it doesn't sound like her, but can you help me look around just to be safe?"

"Of course we will."

"Hold on, something's coming through." Maggie's dad changed lines. I turned to see Henry's eyes boring into me.

"Maggie's missing?" he asked blankly, his eyes wide with panic.

"Yeah, oh, her dad's coming back on." I put the phone back to my ear.

"Jasper, the police just called. They found Maggie's sweater in a snowy field. There's blood or something on it, and apparently a note is addressed to Henry. Can you come to the park?"

My head was buzzing. I couldn't think. "Yeah, we'll be there." I set the phone down. "Henry, the police found her sweater in the park, and they think her blood's on it. And a note, it's addressed to you. We got to go there."

Henry looked at me. "Is this my fault?"

"Did you kidnap Maggie?"

"Of course I didn't, I wouldn't do that to my friend!"

"Then of course it isn't your fault. Come on, let's go."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

**Disclaimer: I do not own Unnatural History. I'm only fifteen, people.**

Henry's point of view:

Jasper and I sprinted down the sidewalk, dodging drifts of snow and slabs of ice. We hadn't brought jackets, but we didn't feel the cold yet. I couldn't shake the feeling that this was entirely my fault. It had something to do with me at least, and that was bad enough. I could only hope that they could track foot prints or something.

"Henry?" Jasper panted.

"Yes?"

"Do you have any idea what this is about?"

"No, I'm hoping the note will give me an idea though." We turned into the park. It wasn't hard to find out where to go to; there was a huge crowd of people being pushed back by the police. Maggie's dad saw us.

"Jasper, Henry, this way." We came over to him. "Aren't you two cold, you aren't wearing any jackets!"

"We're fine, we came over as soon as we heard," I panted. "Where did you find everything?"

"It was found right here." Maggie's dad led us through the crowd of policeman to where Maggie's sweater lay on the snow. There were reddish brown stains on one sleeve, and we saw a policeman take samples of it to see if it was Maggie's.

"We'll have the results from the hair and blood by this evening. We're going to put an express on it, seeing the threatening nature of the note," one officer said, handing the sample to someone else. "There were no finger prints on the note that we could find, it's lying on the ground. Don't move it around if you can help it though, please."

"No problem," I said quickly, not wanting to hinder the investigation in any way. I crouched down by the paper, trying to read the typed note. _Typed, no handwriting to trace_, I thought, frustrated. There went one source. Before reading, I glanced around quickly. There were a lot of footprints from people passing through the park, investigators were trying to locate Maggie's print in the swarm. I was careful not to step on any of the footprints.

_Henry,_

_ Do you remember us? We remember you. Well, I don't personally, but my friends do. _

_ Do you remember an incident maybe a year or two ago when some people chased you out of the hut you were living in when you were home alone? Your parents weren't very happy when they found out, they said that those people 'ought to be punished' as they had 'no right.'_

_ Well, a couple weeks ago, your parents caught up with these people and got them put in jail for trespassing. Not very nice of them, they didn't realise that they had friends all over the world. _

_ Here's what we've got for you. It's too late to undo the damage your parents have done, but you can make things a little better. Don't contact your parents about this, they already know and we'll find out if you do. We want you to stay calm while we work this through with your parent; this is our business and not yours. You have a habit of…making things difficult. Stay out of it. As of yet, your friend is alive, don't make us alter that. _

_ I'd be saying your prayers, though, and hope that your parents cooperate with us. We aren't interested in keeping your friend alive if she's useless, and humans can't live without food or water for all that long._

The message was unsigned. I could feel my jaw clenching and unclenching, I hadn't been this angry ever before.

Jasper had been reading over my shoulder, and his face was bright red with anger too.

"Henry?" the policeman asked. "Do you remember the incident they mention?"

"Yes. Some people chased me out of our home with machetes, my parents were really mad."

"Okay. Did you know these people at all?"

"No. I didn't see their faces, I ran out of the house when I saw their weapons. They didn't really follow me far."

"Did they take anything from your home?"

"They burnt it down, but my parents had the important documents somewhere safe. So no, they didn't get anything from it."

"Okay, you boys better go back home. I'll give you a call if there's anything you can do for me, okay?"

"Yes officer," I said obediently. Inside I was furious. I could help them. I know I could, and they need all the help they could get. We only had three days.

"One thing, boys," Maggie's dad said.

"Yes?"

"What size shoe would you say Maggie wears?"

Jasper and I thought for a minute before I spoke. "She has small feet. Six or seven I'd say."

"Do you know anything about the pattern on the bottom of her shoes? Or the way she walks," the police officer cut in.

I started to shake my head, but Maggie's dad remembered something. "She sprained her ankle last night tripping over something. It was part of why I didn't send her to school, between the cold and the sprain it wasn't any good."

"That would impact the way she ran. Boys, go on home and stay out of trouble."

Jasper and I walked away from the scene, heading back to the house.

"Henry?"

"Yes, Jasper," I asked.

"If her ankle was sprained, how would she have made it this far anyway?"

"I don't know. Wait." I ran back to the police. The policeman looked up at me.

"Did you figure something out, Henry?"

"No, I had a question. Did you check Maggie's house?"

"Yes, we have people there right now but they said it looks clear except for her homework is shoved about as though the door opened and pushed it. There is no sign that someone broke in or that if they did, Maggie tried to resist it."

"Okay." I headed back to Jasper. "They're searching her house, but they say everything looks fine."

Jasper nodded. We reached our house and went into the kitchen and sat at the table wordlessly. We got call after call from students at school who said that the pictures from the search were already online. We didn't feel looking, or drinking the left-over hot chocolate.

The phone rang again. This time I got it.

"Henry?"

"Whitney?"

"Henry, I'm flying up to DC."

"Oh." I said, emotionless.

"I heard about Maggie. That's why I'm coming. The news hasn't reached down here, but Mom got a call about it since we know her."

"Okay. Do you know anything?"

"I want to see the pictures if possible. I'm taking photography courses and I don't know if there is anything I might notice."

"Okay."

"Sorry, we have to turn the phones off."

"Okay."

"Henry, one photo has made it through so far and I think I'm on to something."

"What?"

"I can't say right now. Just in case. I'll tell you when I'm there; I'll be there early in the morning. Bye Henry, say hello to Jasper." She hung up the phone.

Jasper was looking at me. "Whitney?"

"She's coming up. She might be on to something, but she can't say over the phone."

"Okay."

"Jasper," I started.

"Yes?"

"This _is _my fault." I started to tear up a little; Jasper put his hands over the shoulder.

Jasper was crying too.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

**These chapters just keep getting longer and longer. I'm updating as fast as I can, but I've been pretty busy and can only get one or two chapters a day. Thank you to anyone who has reviewed, alerted, or marked my story as a favourite. It means a lot to me. And thank you to anyone who has bothered to read this. I'm not very old, so I appreciate your interest in my growth. **** Thanks guys!**

**PS: My anonymous review is on. If you don't have an account, you can still review. I enjoy you guys just as much as anyone else! Thanks!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Unnatural History. I'm only fifteen, people.**

Henry's point of view:

That evening Jasper's dad came home. He already knew about Maggie, and said that we had to remain in the house as much as we could. When we told him that Whitney was coming, he nearly lost all control.

"By herself, after all that has happened today, she's coming by herself? No, no, she can't. It's a long way from the airport to here and I can't have her coming this far by herself. I'll meet her at the airport. You boys stay put. Answer the phone if it rings though, it might be the police."

He left through the door. Only a few minutes afterwards, the phone rang. I grabbed it mechanically. "Hello?"

"Henry?" It was the police. "We just got DNA samples back from the jacket. It's Maggie's. Are you both safe?"  
"Yeah, we're fine, everything is quiet so far."

"Is your uncle home?"

"No, he's at the airport picking one of our friends up so she doesn't have to come here by herself."

"That's wise of him, except he shouldn't have left you by yourself. Do you want us to send someone over until he gets back?"

"I don't think that's nessicary, they didn't seem to be after us. I'll keep the phone by us though and we'll call you if we hear or see anything."

"Okay, good. Good plan. We have to get back to work, I'm sure you understand."

"Yes, yes. Of course I understand, bye." I hung up the phone and turned to Jasper. "It was her blood, I told them I didn't believe police protection was nessicary, but we're to keep the phone by us and call if we hear or see anything suspicious."

Jasper nodded.

"They'll find her," I said quietly. "They have to."

"Maybe Whitney is one the right track and she can help us find something out."

"I hope so." We sat in silence in our bedroom for awhile before we heard a car pulling up outside. Jasper's dad unlocked the door downstairs.

"Henry, Jasper? Are you here?"

"Yes," Jasper called. We came downstairs. Whitney was standing in the living room. She smiled when she saw us, she looked just like she did last time I saw her. Except for the dark rings under her eyes, those weren't there last time.

"You look exhausted," I informed her. She smiled again.

"Well, it's been a long day. You look tired too, it's nearly midnight."

Jasper's dad cut it. "Whitney, I'm sure this is all common sense, but remain in the house as much as you can. This goes for the three of you. And keep the phone near you; if you see or hear anything at all you must call the police."

"That's what the police said," I told him. "They called; they've identified the blood on her sweater as her own."

"Okay. You three should all sleep. Ordinarily I'd put you on the couch Whitney, but I'm not exactly comfortable putting you downstairs by yourself."

"We could sleep downstairs as well," I volunteered. Jasper's dad look relieved.

"I'll get you some sleeping bags." He brought back two sleeping bags and laid them on the floor. "Okay, goodnight." He headed back upstairs.

Whitney sat down on the couch. I sat next to her. "What did you see?"

"The one picture I saw was of the footprints in the snow. It doesn't add up."

"What do you mean?"

"Maggie's dad said she twisted her ankle last night, and I know for a fact that Maggie's bedroom is upstairs and she keeps sweaters like the one that was found in a downstairs cupboard. So what we're saying is Maggie managed to get down a flight of stairs with a twisted ankle and run to the park in the snow, after she stopped to put on a sweater and fit shoes over a swollen ankle. First of all, you can't get down stairs with a twisted ankle easily, so maybe she was down stairs. Even then, do you see her stopping to grab a sweater and shoes on the way out the door if she was being attacked? Also, she wouldn't have made it that far; she could only limp at best."

"So what do you think happened?" Jasper asked.

"I think that Maggie was attacked at her house and never made it through the door. I was told that the only thing wrong with her house was the 'homework was pushed as though by a door.' Maggie's door moves out of the house when you open it from the inside, and into the house when opened from the outside. It's a weird design. If the homework was pushed up the hallway that means that the door was opened from the outside, and was not opened again for someone to leave the house. The scene in the park was staged, Maggie was attacked in her house and a sweater was stolen, stained with her blood, and left in the house to but the police off her trail."

"So…if they didn't use the door, how did they get Maggie out of the house?"

"Well, the only two options are that Maggie is still in her house, which is improbable as the police are searching it, or that they moved her through an alternate means."

"Like a window?"

"Exactly," Whitney said with a grim smile.

"That doesn't help us though!" Jasper said, exasperated. "We don't know what time things happened at; they could be hours away by now."

"We dropped off her homework at about four, and the police called us at about four thirty or four forty. When her house was searched, the homework had been shoved, which means her house was broken into between that time frame," I said, trying to trace our steps.

Jasper sucked in a breath quickly.

"Jasper, you okay?" Whitney asked with concern.

"I just thought of something."

"What?" I asked.

"Remember Maggie said there were rats in her house?"

"Yeah…." I said slowly, not seeing where he was coming from.

"She set up a camera to watch for them. She disguised it as a fire alarm, remember?"

"Right," I said.

"So, what if it was on…do you think anything could have been caught on camera?"

Whitney, Jasper and I looked at each other. I nodded my head slightly, and Whitney smiled.

"Are the police out of her house," I asked.

Now they were shocked. "You don't think we should tell them?" Jasper asked.

"No, I don't."

"Why not," he nearly shouted. "They're the police, if anyone has a hope at this it's them, not us."

"In the note they said there would be a price to pay if we meddled. They're not going to notice a bunch of police officers, but they might overlook a couple of teenagers easier."

"I still think we should tell them," Whitney said.

"Yeah, but WE have to go in by ourselves," I said.

"Tomorrow," asked Whitney.

I wanted to start today, but that wasn't realistic. "Tomorrow," I agreed. "We all have to sleep sometime."

I don't think anyone slept though. I stared at the ceiling all night long. _I'm sorry, Maggie. I'm sorry._


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Four

**Okay, people. Unfortunately, as of tomorrow, I'm going to be out of town for a week. Internet will not be present, so I won't be able to update this. I'm sorry; I'll try to maybe get another chapter up today or tomorrow. **

**In this chapter, anything written in italics is either a thought or a flashback. This is from Maggie's perspective, and I write in italics when she's recalling what happened, and when she's thinking. Let me know if I've created a realistic Maggie, Henry, Whitney, and Jasper in this story. I want them to be believable.**

**Thank you to everyone who has read or participated in the movement of the story. Your kind compliments make me so happy. If there is anything you want changed, or any ideas you want to put out there for a later chapter or another story, I'll take them all very seriously. Thanks, guys! You're awesome!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Unnatural History. I'm only fifteen, people.**

Maggie's point of view:

I woke up to darkness and began to panic. _Where am I_? I wondered. I could feel the ground moving slightly underneath me, as though I was in a car. _Where are we going? Why am I in a car? What happened_?

I remembered, then. I remembered what had happened.

_"Maggie," Dad had called to me. "Maggie, I don't think you should go to school today."_

_ "Why not," I had asked._

_ "Well, you won't be able to walk with your ankle." I looked down at my swollen ankle that was propped up on a pillow. "Plus, that cold of yours could get much worse."_

_ "Okay," I relented, glaring angrily at my ankle._

_ "I asked Henry and Jasper to bring your homework over so you won't fall behind."_

_ That had made me smile. "Thank you, Daddy."_

_ Dad had left, it was quiet. I read a book and occasionally inched down the stairs to get some ice for my ankle._

_ Then it happened. There was a click downstairs. Angrily, I thought of the rats that we were sure lived somewhere in our house. They were probably downstairs. I could only hope that my camera would catch their movements and we could figure out where they were living._

_ Footsteps were coming up the stairs. I felt a cold pang go through my heart. "Daddy," I called out._

_ There was a man I didn't know standing in my doorway. I opened my mouth to scream, but he put his hand over my mouth. I cried out into his hand, and he slapped me in the face so hard that my head was knocked back and tears came to my eyes. Picking me up, he slung me over his shoulder and went down the stairs quickly. He pushed one of the downstairs windows open and handed me to someone else. I bit into the persons hand and I was hit again. I could feel a needle in my arm, and my knees went weak. I passed out._

I was scared; I didn't want to open my eyes. I didn't want to see where I was.

"I think she's awake," a rough voice said. "Hey, open your eyes." He grabbed my shoulder roughly and shook me. It hurt, and I didn't like him. I wanted to hit him, but I didn't want to be hurt again.

I opened my eyes; my vision was slightly clouded from the injection. My mouth was dry and sticky. I was thirsty; I hadn't had any water since breakfast. _What time is it? _I noticed that the sky was dark. It was night already. I hadn't eaten or had anything to drink since breakfast. That explained why my head was spinning so badly.

The men laughed at me. I tried to move my hands but I found that they were tied behind me. They felt slightly numb, and it hurt when I tried to move them apart from each other. I could feel bruises from where they had hit me, it hurt whenever I tried to open or close my eyes.

"What's wrong, Maggie?" one of the men asked in a falsely-kind voice. I closed my eyes so I didn't have to look at him, but he shook me again to make me open my eyes. "Does your face hurt? Maybe you shouldn't have been so mean to us. If you hadn't, we wouldn't have had to be so mean to you."

I turned away from them, facing the seat. I could hear them laughing at me again. I wanted to sit up but wasn't sure if I would be able to, so I stayed lying down. I began to cry now. It hurt. And I was scared. Really scared, so I closed my eyes again, not wanting to see this, not wanting to think about where I was how scared I was.

I talked to Henry and Jasper. Not the real them, of course, but I could hear their voices in my head and pretended that it was them.

_Jasper, I'm scared._

_ It's going to be okay._

_ How do you know?_

_ It will be. Henry and I will find you. The police are looking for you. Just stay strong._

_ It hurts._

_ I know. I know, but don't let them see. If they don't think they're getting to you, they might stop._

_ It's hard._

_ You're strong. You can do this, I know you can._

_ Jasper, I have something to say._

_ Yes, Maggie?_

_ Sometimes I think I might love you. I'll tell the real you if I can. I will._


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

**I got another chapter up! Be happy! PS, I'm sorry that the last chapter said Chapter Four instead of Chapter Five. That was a mistake. I'll not do it again, I hope.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Unnatural History. I'm only fifteen, people.**

Henry's point of view:

Around six in the morning, I heard Jasper's voice. "Henry, you awake?"

"Yes. I might have dozed off once or twice, but I've pretty much been awake." I turned to face him, and I could see that he was staring at the ceiling, his sleeping bag pulled up to his shoulders.

"Same," Jasper said. He sounded sad.

Whitney spoke up from on the couch. "I'm awake too." She sat up. "Should we call the police now?"

"I guess so," I said. I picked up the phone that I had kept near my head the whole night and dialed 911.

"Hello?" I asked when the phone was picked.

"Henry? Is something wrong?" The chief of police who I had talked to yesterday had picked up.

"No, no. We're all fine. We might have figured something out though."

"What's that?"

"Maggie's house had a camera going to try to catch the movement of rats. We were wondering if anything had been caught on the tape."

"We thought of that. The problem is we couldn't get to the film. Maggie protected it with a password. You can't open the film on the computer unless you know her password."

"Could we go over and try?"

"Yes, the house is clear. Keep a phone with you, just in case, Maggie's father stayed at the station last night as we were still checking it. It'll be empty. If you notice anything, tell us, okay?"

"Okay." I hung up the phone. "The police gave us permission to go into her house because it's clear. Maggie protected the film with a password that we'll have to break to be able to access."

"Okay." Jasper woke up his dad, and told him where we were going.

His dad came downstairs. "Be careful, you three."

"We will." We walked quickly to Maggie's house and located the spare key that we knew she kept inside a flower pot. We unlocked her door and stepped inside.

The first thing I noticed was the homework we had left for her had been removed during the search. Her house was eerily silent.

"Where did she keep the camera, again?" I asked Jasper.

"It's on the table, the police set it there. But it hung from the ceiling there." He pointed to an area of her ceiling that had the doorway in clear view.

"Good, it probably caught what happened," Whitney said. She picked up Maggie's camera and held it close to her for a second. Jasper took it from her and opened it up carefully, pulling out the film. He put the rest of the camera in his pocket.

"Should we go now?" he asked.

"Hold on," I said. "I want to check her room." I climbed upstairs and went to Maggie's room. There was an icepack lying on her bed. A book was lying partially open on the floor. It made me start for a second. It was so un-Maggie to leave a book open on the floor. I picked it up, closing it gently, and sat it on her bed before going back downstairs. "Let's go."

We got back home and Jasper turned on his computer, plugging Maggie's tape into his computer. A screen asking for a password popped up.

"Hold on!" I said out loud.

"What?" Jasper asked.

"She wrote something on a sticky note. It was stuck to the underside of her desk; I noticed when I bent down to pick something up."

"What did it say?"

"Museum HJMW," I said, remembering what I had seen.

"That might be her password." Jasper typed it in. It worked and started to upload. "What does HJM mean?"

Whitney smiled. "Henry, Jasper, Maggie, Whitney."

Jasper smiled, but looked sad. The video was popping up, we clicked on it. The images were clear. Maggie's head showed up in the camera. "I think it's working, Dad!" she cried. That was only a week ago. It was all fine only a week ago.

We sped through scenes where it was dark, obviously at night. On a date labeled to have been four days ago, Jasper and I showed up on the camera.

"This is our camera," Maggie's voice said. She pointed at the screen. "Smile, it'll record you." We all made goofy faces for a second before walking away.

We fast forwarded some more, until we saw Maggie trip on the stairs and fall. "Ow!" she cried out. Her dad checked her ankle.

"I think it's sprained. Here, we'll go back upstairs." They disappeared off camera. The house became dark, and then became light again as we sped through the night. Maggie's dad left. We sped through the day until we saw the homework being pushed through the door flap. We turned up the volume and could hear Maggie saying that she'd be down in a minute. We hadn't heard her through the door.

Then, a figure dressed in a large coat and gloves came through her front door. He walked across the floor and approached the stairs, beginning to climb them. Jasper stopped the film and turned to me. "Do you recognise him?"

"No, let it keep going." The film restarted and we watched the man climb the stairs.

"Daddy," Maggie called out. She sounded frightened. There were quick footsteps upstairs, a muffled shriek, and we watched as Maggie was dragged downstairs and pushed through the downstairs front window. A car drove by the screen, and Jasper froze it expertly.

He turned to me. "You can see the license plate through the window." He quickly pulled up a search window and searched the license plate number. The car records were pulled up immediately, and a picture came up of the old owner. Even better, there was an address.

We had only just reached for the phone when something strange happened. Something hit me in the back of the head. It was a piece of paper wrapped around a rock. I unwrapped and flattened it against the table. It was a note, scrawled messily on a scrap of paper.

_Didn't we tell you not to meddle? We're feeling nice, so we'll let her live. But there is a tracer in your phone. Don't call the police. Don't call anyone, or she dies. Just stay put, alright?_

I showed the note to Jasper and Whitney. We looked at the window and shuddered.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

**This is a vote to all my readers. Should I slow down and draw the story out, or keep them coming? I have several chapters left to go, so it's up to you guys. Keep in mind that I won't be able to update from tomorrow afternoon to Sunday morning this week. Sorry guys, I'm traveling. I didn't know whether I'd get this chance, it's a onetime thing. **** It's no fun for me either.**

**I use handwritings in this chapter, and I'm sorry if they do not carry into the final work. They are working just fine right now in Microsoft Word. **This is Jasper's handwriting. It's referred to Bradley Hand ITC, to give them credit. This is Henry's writing. I made Henry's writing look bad because I didn't assume that he had been writing much in all the foreign places where he had lived. It's referred to as Curlz MT. This is Whitney's writing, it's commonly referred to as monotype Corsiva.

**Disclaimer: I do not own Unnatural History. I'm only fifteen, people.**

Jasper's point of view:

Someone was watching us. That was the only thing my mind was willing to accept. Someone has been watching us and they know what we're up to. I quickly shut down everything on my computer, disconnecting Maggie's camera and cradling it close to me as I cleared my history.

Henry had shown us the note and then grabbed a stack of paper and several pens, beckoning to me and Whitney to follow him. We walked out of the room and upstairs to the room I share with Henry. Henry pulled a blanket off of my bed and beckoned for us to sit down. Whitney and I sat down and Henry threw the blanket over us. I heard him scrabble for something on my bedside table before he joined us under the blanket, clicking on a flashlight and spreading the paper underneath the blanket. Whitney was pressed up close against me, it was rather cramped. Henry took one of the pens and started writing.

I suppose I don't have to state why we're doing this.

Whitney and I nodded. We knew. Henry gave us a small smile before beginning to write again, his messy handwriting scrawling across the page. It made mine look very neat.

Good. As a fact, once we are done with this paper we are shredding it and destroying the remains. What do we know about the situation we've got here? Only by listing our facts can we clarify our situation and find a solution to our problems.

I took the pen from him. Henry scooted the paper closer to me so that I could write easily in the narrow confines of our blanket tent.

We have the license plate to the car they took Maggie in, and an address to where they live, making it plausible that we rescue her soon.

We also know that we are being watched, Whitney added, using one of the other pens. Her neat writing crossed the page in a different colour than mine and Henry's. The strange contrasts, black and reddish-purple in the dim shadows, made my head hurt. These last 24 hours made my head hurt. I continued to watch as Whitney wrote more. And that whoever we're dealing with doesn't want us interfering, and are willing to kill Maggie if we upset them.

They tapped our phone line.

They also aren't still here.

I nearly dropped my pencil in my hurry to respond to Henry's comment. My head had cleared for the moment in my excitement.

What do you mean? How do you know?

They wouldn't have had to tap us if they were still able to watch us. They've left the area to go back to wherever.

Whitney opened her eyes wide and nodded in understanding before writing her question. Then what's with all the secrecy? Why are we hiding under a blanket? It's not exactly ideal writing conditions.

If they can tap our phone they can put cameras in our house. They might have when we were gone, and then they would know what we were planning to do.

Is it safe for us to go after Maggie then? I was still holding Maggie's camera close to my chest, as though somehow I could hold her through it. Henry looked at me and smiled in sad sort of way, before changing his expression to one of confusion. I had suddenly clenched my fists so tightly that the knuckles were going white.

Jasper? Henry wrote, concerned. You okay?

_Me,_ I thought, _me? They're worried about me? Don't they understand?_

I opened my eyes. I had closed them in my frustration and worry. Whitney and Henry were looking at me in concern, their faces bathed in half-shadows. I could see their eyes glittering like creatures in the dark. Everything was menacing. I felt a gentle tugging feeling on my hand. Henry was trying to make me release my death grip on Maggie's camera a little.

She's not going to like it if you break her camera, Jasper. What did you realise? Did you think of something?

Just realising, Maggie hasn't eaten or had anything to drink in about 24 hours now. She'll cease to function properly soon. We're running out of time. Is there any chance at all that we'd be able to rescue her soon?

I'm trying to think of something. We have a pretty good idea of where she is. We're not positive how long it would take to get to her, how many people are there, or what sort of security is around her. I doubt they're going to let her just be wandering around, she's too valuable to them. We also know that if we are caught 'interfering' she is in even more danger, but we also know that if my parents don't cooperate in time, she could die of dehydration. That only takes three days, and she's already gone through a whole day. We don't know if she's hurt, or if she's warm enough. We know that she is somewhat ill at least, and has a twisted ankle. If you watch the movie closely you also notice that she was drugged before being put in the car. We can't promise that she will be able to help in the rescue process. Jasper, is the address far away from here? Don't write it down, just in case.

I thought for a few minutes, drawing a mental picture in my mind. It would take us several hours to get there, not including the ice factor which makes it hard to drive. It's about 10 in the morning now. Counting in the ice factor, we might not arrive there until maybe as late as six in the evening. That would freak my dad out, and he would call the police. Also, it would be dark by the time we arrive. I know the gist of the house's shape from the picture, but we'll have no idea what we're dealing with. We have to do this without the police. We can't head out until tomorrow morning.

That'll be the two day mark.Whitney's eyes were huge and frightened.

We'll have to wake up pretty early tomorrow morning, leave while Dad's gone, and get over there and get Maggie.Henry looked tired. I looked at Whitney, her eyes still had the black raccoon-like circles they had had last night when she arrived. I put my head in my hands. I didn't know what to do. I could feel the tears starting, and I couldn't hold them back. _I'm going to find you, Maggie. Hold on. You're going to be okay, just stay strong; I'm going to get you out of there tomorrow. I will find you. You'll be safe. Hold on, Mags. Just hold on._


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

**I'm sorry about the font problem in the last chapter. I didn't realise that fonts didn't transfer to the website. Due to this, if you have any questions as to what just happened; you can review and write those questions as part of your review. I'll answer all of them. **

**You can still answer the questions I've asked my readers so far, these being them: Do I sound like a fifteen year old when I write, as I am a fifteen-year-old? Should I draw the story out or keep putting up chapters as quickly as I am? I am currently (when not on vacation) putting up a chapter or two a day. If you would like, I can keep at this pace, or slow to only a chapter every other day so that the story won't end too quickly. It's up to you guys, let me know what you want, please. **

**Thanks to everyone who has read, alerted, marked this story as a favorite, or reviewed on this story. This story still has a way to go, and I wouldn't be able to find it in me to continue with it if I didn't get the impression that at least a few people were enjoying it. But it seems to be more than a few, which makes me very happy and excited to see where this will go.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Unnatural History. I'm only fifteen, people.**

Maggie's point of view:

My head hurt. Light hit into my eyelids, making my head hurt worse. I scrunched my eyes up tightly, trying to keep the light out of them. _Morning, its morning already, I've been gone more than twelve hours at least. They must have noticed I was gone now. Daddy must have noticed that I was gone, and he would call the police._ I could hear voices talking urgently in the front seat. Pretending to be asleep, I listened to their conversation. Anything to help me know where I was, or who I was with, or why I was here would be helpful.

The voice at the steering wheel seemed to be in charge. "We've almost arrived."

"Why were we driving in circles around the city for so long," the other voice asked. I recognised him as the one who shook me earlier. He was the one who drugged me. A surge of rage went through me, but I repressed it, continuing to listen.

"We had to give time for me to spy on the boys, remember?" said a third voice. It was right next to me. My eyes flew open in surprise, and I was glad that my face was still against the seat. The third voice must have seen me flinch. "You awake, Margaret?"

I didn't like him saying my full name, so I bit my lip but didn't react. I closed my eyes again, it case he decided to look at me.

"Is she awake?" asked the first voice, the voice in charge.

"I can't really tell."

"Just shake her, that's what I did," said the second voice. He laughed. It was a stupid, malicious laugh.

I decided to name them for myself. The driver was Driver. The second voice, the one who shook me, was Idiot because he laughed stupidly and I didn't like him. And the one who had been told to spy on Henry and Jasper was Spy.

Spy followed Idiot's suggestion and shook me. I held myself still, refusing to react even though the shaking made my head hurt worse. He was slightly gentler than Idiot had been, but my head began to hurt sharply. I bit my lip so hard it began to bleed.

After a few minutes, Spy stopped. I took a silent, shaky deep breath to calm myself. _Jasper! _I called in my head. _Jasper, I'm scared. Henry, I'm scared. It hurts. What do I do? _

_ Hold on, Mags, _the Henry voice inside my head said. _We're going to find you. Lots of people are looking for you._

_ But it hurts. My head hurts really badly. _

_ Don't show them, _Jasper said in my head. _Don't show them. They want to break you, I think. Breaking will only make it easier for them to destroy you._

_ I am breaking though. I can't win this._

_ No, don't! Don't, just hold on. You're going to be okay, Mags. _Henry was getting quieter in my head. Idiot was shaking me now, and my head hurt badly enough that I opened my eyes and turned around to face towards them.

"Ah, she's awake," crowed Idiot in his stupid voice. "How are you doing, Margaret?"

I glared at him through narrowed eyes. Strands of my dark hair were obscuring my vision. I couldn't move them, my hands were still tied. I shook my head a little to get my hair out of my face

"She keeps glaring at me," Idiot said, whining. I was afraid. I knew one of them was going to hurt me.

"Slap her, then." Driver said coldly.

I could see Idiot smile maliciously, and I closed my eyes. A sharp smack hit me in the face and my head hit into the door against a sharp edge. I could feel blood go down through my hair and I bit my already bleeding lip to keep from crying out.

"Gross, she's bleeding," said Spy.

"Serves her right," said Idiot.

"You probably concussed her," said Spy. He almost sounded worried about me. Then he laughed at me. I could feel tears springing to my eyes, and I held them back behind my eyes. My head hurt and I felt dizzy as the car lurched beneath me.

"She's turning green," Spy said. "I think she's going to vomit." Driver pulled the car over to the side of the road and I was shoved out of the car by spy. I vomited into the snow, my head hurting more with each retch until I had emptied myself and was done. I staggered away from the vomit, my bound hands useless. I sunk to my knees in the snow. The snow bit through my pants and shirt, I hadn't been wearing a sweater or shoes. I gave a prayer of thanks for my socks that daddy had asked me to put on before he left for work yesterday morning.

I heard footsteps crunch in the snow around me, and Idiot's shadow loomed over me. Fear sunk in my stomach, but I refused to look at him. "Silly Margaret," he said, spitting my whole name through his teeth. I could feel blood from my head dripping through my hair still, dying my dark hair a temporary red. I glared at him, trying to focus my eyes through the dizziness. The snow had made my legs numb; I was still kneeling in it. I couldn't feel my twisted ankle hurt anymore. I was glad for that, the lack of pain made it slightly easier for me to focus.

"Speak, Margaret," Idiot cooed. "Speak to me; I want to hear your pretty voice." I glared at him through narrowed eyes, but remained silent. I turned away from him, but he took my face in his hands and made me look at him. "Look at me, Margaret. Look at me. You have pretty eyes. Beautiful, scared eyes." I fought back a shudder of revulsion, which he noticed. "What? I'm not good enough for you?" He sounded furious. I opened my mouth and bit his hand hard. Idiot swore and knocked me into the snow face down. I could feel his hot breath on my neck. "Don't play games you can't win, Margaret." He put one hand on my back, and I scratched at him with my hands, feeling blindly for his. He laughed and put his other hand on the back of my neck.

_I'm going to die_, I realised. _He's going to kill me. _

Sure enough, he held my head down into the snow. The cold bit savagely at my cheeks, freezing the tears I shed as I began to choke.

_Jasper? Henry? _I called, panicky. Even if they were just my imagination, I didn't want to die alone.

_Mags. _Both of them were there, sounding sad.

_Choking, can't breathe. _

_ Oh, Mags. _Henry's imaginary voice came quietly. He didn't know what to say.

_You're so brave. So brave_, Jasper told me gently.

_I wasn't strong enough._

_ Don't say that, Maggie. You're amazing. _Henry sounded distant.

Darkness clouded my mind. I had to say goodbye, even if it wasn't really to them.

_Bye-bye Henry, Bye-bye Jasper. I'm sorry._

_ Bye Mags. You did amazingly._


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

**Sorry for the panic attack many of you must have had last chapter. That chapter specifically is why I put the story onto 'teen', I was pretty sure it would upset most children. By the looks of it, it upset many of my readers anyway. Should of put a warning on that one…..**

**I've gotten a couple mixed (though still very helpful and polite) comments about the not-quite-voices that Maggie has been talking to. Some people think they are nice, other people think they're a little sketchy. I appreciate both views, but in order to set the record, I used them as a way to a.) give Maggie a reason to hope and b.) give her something to interact with. I thought it would be rather boring if she just watched and listened to things all the time. I'll admit, they feel a bit sketchy to me, too, but I wasn't sure of any better way to give her someone to talk to without making her just talk to herself, which I thought would make her seem insane. I also wanted to give a good idea of where she was emotionally, because I wasn't sure her thoughts were communicated with enough emotion.**

**Thank you to Vitality Palmer, utmy123, Inkshaper, The Star Swordsman, so unnatural, rose angel 428, Card's Shadow, xXxZaraxXx, and Anime Kitten of Death for reviewing on this story so far. Also, a thank you to all who have alerted, marked this as a favourite, or read this story! **

**This is a huge note.**

**On with the story, I suppose.**

Maggie's point of view:

"You killed her!"

"I didn't expect her to just die!" It was idiot. Had he followed me to torment me even after he murdered me?

"You held her down in the snow for a full minute at least. What _did _you expect?" yelled Driver furiously. He was smacking me on the back, and I felt a lump of half-dissolved snow come out of my mouth. Awaking somewhat, I strained to open my eyes. They were frozen stuff. Someone was trying to scrape the ice away. I wasn't sure who it was. My hair swung, hard and frozen from my tears, and hit me in the face as I coughed up the rest of the snow I had nearly swallowed.

"She's soaked," Driver continued, no longer smacking me. "Yes, hit her. Yes, scare her. But don't kill her!"

"She's alive," Idiot mumbled.

"Only because we pulled you away from her, you would have killed her if we hadn't stopped you!"

"A minute doesn't feel like very long," Idiot mumbled uselessly.

"Long enough to kill," Spy said. He scraped the ice off my face, and I opened my eyes. They had saved me. Even if only for their own selfish means, they had saved me.

"She bit me," Idiot said. He touched my shoulder, and I felt a wave of fear batter me. I tried to stand on my twisted ankle, but I could barely move. Spy was holding me up. I sank back into unconsciousness.

I awoke to being carried, slung over Idiot's shoulder. He dropped me down inside some sort of small room, looking at me in an angry way.

"You got me in trouble, girl," he said hatefully. I growled at him quietly, and he smacked me. I fell to the ground, my already potentially-concussed head slamming into the ground. I struggled to find my hands, but they were still tied. Idiot loomed over me, Driver and Spy standing near him. Spy knelt down and held me down. I kicked at him, but he pinned my legs and shoulders. I screamed, attempting to startle him, but Idiot held my mouth. Driver shoved a cloth into my mouth, cutting off my scream. Idiot reached for something, handing Driver another cloth, which he used to tie around my mouth to keep me from spitting the original cloth out. I screamed into the cloth, but you could only hear a muffled _mmmmmph_ noise. They let go of me.

"Do you think she's secure?" Driver asked.

Idiot and Spy nodded. "Why are we keeping her quiet again?" asked Spy. He carried me out of the small room to another room.

"It's just for the phone call. We don't want her to alert the Griffin's of anything, just in case."

_Henry's parents? What do they have to do with all of this?_

Idiot brought a phone over to Driver, and he dialed a number and waited for a few seconds, tapping his foot impatiently.

"Hello?" he spoke into the phone. "Mr. and Mrs. Griffin? Put yourself on speakerphone, please. I'd like to talk to both of you."

There was a pause as Henry's parents responded.

"Hold on," said Driver. "I'm putting you on speaker phone. There we go. What's that you were saying?"

"Who are you?" asked Henry' dad.

"Well, you see….do you remember the time some people burned down your home in the jungle? It was a year or two ago."

"Yes…" said Mr. Griffin slowly. He sounded tired. Maybe it was night where he was.

"Those were our friends. I'm going to ask that you tell the authorities in that area that it was a mistake and ask that they are freed."

"Why? Why should we?" asked Henry's mother.

"We've…taken a hostage," said Driver.

"Henry?" asked his mother, sounding instantly angry.

"No, not Henry or Jasper, nor your brother, we aren't interested in them. We didn't want people to be able to guess what we were up to. Your son and nephew are safely at home. Care for another guess?"

"…Maggie?" Henry's mom said slowly. _She knows my nickname?_ I thought with surprise. I didn't expect that she would know that much about me.

"That's the one," Idiot said. He put his hand on my shoulder again, and I flinched despite myself, feeling ashamed immediately afterwards.

"Maggie, are you alright?" Henry's father asked.

"Mmph," I said angrily.

"She's not in a position to speak right now," said Driver smugly.

"Let me talk to her," said Henry's father. His voice shook a little. "Let her talk to me."

Driver untied the knot from the cloth around my head. I spat out the second cloth.

"Maggie?" said Henry's mom.

"Yes…" I said shakily. My head hurt. Badly, worse than before.

"Are you alright?"

I looked at Driver. He nodded. "Reason…reasonably."

"Are you hurt?"

"Head hurts…" I said. I felt myself blacking out again, but I fought to keep myself awake. "Hurts."

"Have they hurt your head?"

"Yes, ow…" I said. There was a sharp pain to my head. "Ow!" I cried out.

"Maggie?" I didn't respond. I was focusing too hard on fighting off the pain.

"Tell us something that only someone who knows Henry would know," said Henry's dad.

"He…washed his clothes in the dishwasher," I said, smiling a little despite the pain. "And he sleeps in a hammock in Jasper's room."

"That's Henry. Tell me your full name, and count to ten for me, okay?"

"…Margaret?" I said slowly. "One, two, three, four, five…" I trailed off, it hurt too badly.

"I think you're concussed, honey," said Henry's mom.

"That's enough," said Driver. Her dragged me away from the phone, and handed me off to Spy. Spy clamped one hand over my mouth.

"She has a concussion," said Henry's dad. "You have to take care of that, or it could seriously damage her."

"She's fine," said Driver. "Here are the rules: contact our authorities as to where she is or we are, and she dies. Talk to your son, nephew, or brother, and she dies. We'll kill her, believe us, we will. Talk to the authorities who are holding our friends only. You have two days. Humans can't go without water for long."

I didn't hear the rest of the conversation. Spy shoved me back into the small room, and I curled up in a ball on the ground, shivering. My clothing was still soaked from the attack in the snow, and I tried to warm myself. My head hurt really badly, and I tried to remember what I knew about concussions. I gave up and went to sleep.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

** Yes! Tenth chapter and it looks to be a long one. Maybe I'll actually break 2000 words. That would be cool.**

**Due to responses from my questions, I'm going to keep uploading chapters as quickly as I an. Keep in mind that as my life gets a little busy at times, I may not be consistently uploading. **

** I realised while writing this story that while I'm pretty sure that things are going to turn into a Jasper + Maggie story, there is a chance that things might turn into a Henry + Maggie story. I'm pretty sure it's going to be the former (for all of you who's language skills aren't trapped in the 19****th**** or 20****th**** century like mine are, that means the one in the list that came before, or Jasper + Maggie in this case) but if it doesn't, I hope you'll forgive me for not being truthful in the summary.**

** Thank you for the inspiration all of my reviewers have given me. You guys are the reason I'm so excited to open my email every day. You never disappointed me so far.**

Whitney's point of view:

Henry stood up and shredded the paper that we had written on. He put a few handfuls of the shreds into his mouth and swallowed them, making a face at their taste.

"Here," I said quietly. I took a few of the remaining shreds of notebook paper and put them into my mouth. They tasted disgusting, but I swallowed them, feeling a weird scratching feeling as they went down my throat. Jasper eyed the few remaining strands uneasily, but put them in his mouth and swallowed them with a cough.

"Gross," I said, trying to make a joke out of it. Jasper didn't respond, but Henry gave me a smile that was dyed slightly blue from the ink on the paper. I felt something funny happen in my stomach, and for the first time in my life I experienced the 'butterflies' that everyone talked about. Henry put his hand over his stomach for a second. _Does he feel this too?_

Jasper swallowed again, jerky and sudden. The noise broke me out of the sensation, something I was half grateful and half-disappointed about.

"Jasper, are you choking?" Henry asked.

Jasper shook his head. "I figured something out," he said, his eyes really wide.

"Don't say it here," I warned him. He nodded, grabbed my hand, and tugged me down the stairs to the front door.

"Come on, Henry," Jasper called back up the stair case. Henry came down the stairs quickly, sounding like an elephant. Jasper flung the door open and we all stepped outside, pressing close to each other in the snow because we were so cold. "Dad won't be home tonight," he said. "I just remembered. He has a meeting tonight and he won't be home until tomorrow afternoon. Which means, if we wanted to and thought we were ready…we could go get Maggie now," he said, finishing with the first real smile that he shown since the kidnapping.

I shivered, but smiled as well. "What time would we get there if we headed out now?"

Henry noticed I was shivering and wrapped his arm around my shoulders, giving me the butterflies again. I smiled in silly sort of way, and hoped he hadn't noticed. I didn't want him to think I was one of those crushing girls. "Pretty late, sometime really late at night if the ice gives us trouble, right Jasper?" Jasper nodded, looking up anxiously. "Are you okay, Whitney?"

My eyes felt leaden, and I fought to keep them open. "I'm just really tired," I said, trying to disguise how exhausted I was.

"You didn't sleep last night either? Jasper and I were awake the whole time, too." Jasper nodded without looking up, scraping his foot up and down the ice quickly, mouthing something. I couldn't read lips very well, but I thought I could tell what he was saying.

"Not last night, or the night before I don't think. I slept a couple hours the night before that.

"Why aren't you sleeping regularly," Henry asked me. I didn't respond for a minute, now convinced I knew what Jasper was saying. He was saying Maggie's name over and over again. I smiled a little, understanding.

"My little sister has an ear infection, a really bad one too. I've been up most nights with her for a week because Mom's been busy with work."

"You can sleep on the way there," Henry said. He still had his arm around me. When I noticed that, I had to struggle not to blush.

"I'll drive," Jasper offered, breaking his mantra. Only he and I could drive, Henry hadn't learned yet.

We piled into the car. I sat in the backseat, leaning my head against the window. Henry sat in the passenger seat, and Jasper sat in the driver's seat. The car started and hummed beneath us as we waited for it to defrost.

"My parents can't do it," Henry said quietly. Had any of us been talking, we wouldn't have been able to hear him.

"What do you mean?" Jasper asked. "They can't fulfill the demands they made?" He turned to look at Henry.

"No," Henry said bluntly.

"Why not," I asked. I could see his eyes in the mirror. He looked very tense.

"Because the men who trespassed on our property that one time are being used as servants to the royal family until they have worked off their crime. The law of the area demands that, for their crime, they must serve five years. No exceptions can be made, and they will not be realised from their duty until they have worked three more years. That's why this is up to us; there was no way for these people to lose this battle, as there were only two choices: my parents would miraculously succeed, letting them win in that sense, or my parents would fail and they would leave after Mags died." Jasper flinched at the last suggestion.

"This is important, then," Jasper said. He breathed on the window and wiped it. "Dang, the windows aren't all the way clear yet."

"This is dangerous," I added. "What if they catch us?" I asked. Jasper flinched again, drumming his fingers anxiously on the steering wheel.

"Then we all die," said Henry grimly. I shuddered. Jasper had started to get the car moving.

"Do you remember the address?" I asked Jasper, realising that we hadn't had a chance to print it out.

"Yes. I've been in the area before. You should probably sleep now, Whitney." Jasper said. His voice was full of concentration; I knew that backing out of an icy driveway was difficult.

I leaned my head against the window and closed my eyes. It felt cold under my cheek, but I didn't really mind. "Wake me up after an hour or two, okay? I want to know the plan."

"Okay," agreed Henry.

"If you stop at some point, I'll drive," I offered.

"Sounds good," agreed Jasper. He let out a sigh of relief as we successfully got out of his driveway. "You should sleep too, Henry."

"Okay," Henry said. He leaned his head against the window like I was and went to sleep instantly.

"Lucky guy," I said, smiling. Jasper smiled in agreement.

"Monkey boy," he said fondly. "You sleep for now, Whitney."

I closed my eyes. It was quiet for a bit.

"Whitney," Jasper asked quietly.

"Hm," I responded, opening my eyes again.

"Thank you for coming," he said earnestly.

"No problem. She's my friend, too. Jasper, are you in love?"

Jasper stiffened slightly, but then relaxed. "I think so."

"Maggie?"

"Yes," he relented. "Don't tell Henry, though, okay?"

"I think he already knows," I told him gently.

"Are _you _in love? With Henry," he added.

I turned bright red. "Yes," I said quietly.

Jasper laughed a little and my expression. "I think he feels the same way."

"You won't tell him?"

"No, I won't."

"Thanks, Jasper."

"No biggie. Now I won't disturb you," he said quietly. "Just sleep."

"Okay," I agreed, already drifting off.

I awoke to Henry shaking my shoulder gently. "Whitney, wake up," he said softly. He sounded a little scared.

"Is something happening?" I asked, instantly awake. "Are we there?"

"We're an hour or two away," he said, still quiet. There was worry around his eyes.

"Why are we stopping," I asked, looking at the window "Oh," I said, seeing human shapes outside the window.

"Yes," said a voice right outside my window. It sounded pleased, which terrified me. He pulled my door, which I was still leaning on; open and I fell into the snow. Henry and Jasper climbed out of the car, and Henry helped me up. The snow had soaked partially through my pants, and I shivered.

"Who are you," asked Henry into the darkness. I could hear breathing, but I could only see one or two of the shapes, who were already melting back into the shadows.

"None of your business," said the voice who had spoken before. He grabbed me by the wrist, but Henry took me by the shoulders firmly.

"Let her go," he said in a voice I hadn't heard before. The man released me, laughing, and Henry pushed me behind him. "What's happening," he asked them.

"You meddled," said another voice from the darkness. "But we've decided not to kill you." There was something kinder in this voice, but I didn't trust it.

"Is Maggie okay," Jasper demanded, his voice cracking with panic.

"Margaret? We aren't going to kill her. She's still useful to bargain with. We'll let her live for now if you don't alert anyone to your position right now," said the first.

Henry nodded. I was shaking, and he could feel it. He put a hand on my shoulder.

"Aw, is she scared," said a voice directly behind me. He grabbed me around the waist and covered my mouth. Henry turned around quickly and stared at the man holding me. He couldn't do anything, though.

"I win," gloated the man. He fumbled for something, finding something in his pocket and stuck me in the arm. Henry and Jasper went white as they recognised it as a needle. He pushed me towards them, and Jasper grabbed me before I hit the ground, supporting me.

"What did you do?" asked Jasper. "Whitney? Come on, Whitney." He shook me.

"It won't hurt her," said the second. "It just makes her pass out."

Jasper held me up, but he started to give out. "Henry, she's slipping," he said quickly. Henry grabbed me, putting one hand underneath my knees and the other around my shoulders.

"I've got her," he said, completely picking me up. He shook me a little. "Still here?" he asked, sounding worried.

I nodded a little. "Mmm…hmm…" I mumbled.

"Does it hurt?" he asked.

"No," I said quietly.

"Okay, good." He carried me the way I carried my little sisters. Snow was falling on us, and I buried my face in his shoulder.

"Too cold," I said unhappily.

"I know," he said, shivering.

"Get to the car," commanded a voice. Henry walked to the car, and Jasper followed. One man took out several lengths of rope and tied jasper's hands behind him. Jasper was pushed into the car.

"Set her down," commanded the voice again. Henry stood me on the ground, but I was too tired to stand by myself. Henry stabilized me as someone tied my hands behind me. I was pushed into our car next to Jasper. Jasper tried to give me a smile.

"You okay?" he asked.

"Tired," I said, barely comprehendible.

"You can lean on me," he offered, somehow understanding what I had said. I nodded and put my head on his shoulder and closing my eyes. I felt Henry get shoved in next to me, and heard the door slam shut before I finally passed out.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

** For those of you keeping track, that last chapter broke 2000 words, making it the longest chapter so far! This next chapter is probably not going to be quite so long. My chapters seem to be staying in this 1000-2000 word range, which I think is a nice size for them. Eventually they might end up a little longer, but I don't want you to have a novel at a time to sift through. I hope you enjoy this chapter, I think it's going to be a good one.**

** And for those of you who have noticed some things about my spelling, I spell things with British spellings. Colour, realise, etc. I'm actually American, not British. It just happens with me sometimes, I'm a weird person. If this annoys any of you, tell me and I can try to stop. **

** Thanks for reading. PS: 23 reviews so far. However, four of them were from me, but that still means 19 reviews. That's more than one per chapter so far. Good job, readers! Keep it up! Remember that if you don't have an account, or can't sign into it for any reason, my anonymous review setting is on, so you are free to review if so inclined.**

Jasper's point of view:

With Whitney passed out, things were temporarily up to me and Henry. We needed a plan, but I wasn't sure how we could make one with two people in the car that would kill one of us if it came down to that.

"You do realise what you just did, don't you?" asked one of the people up front.

Henry and I didn't respond, but that didn't seem to faze him. "You just bought us more time! Don't you get it? That girl is close to dying, but now we have you, giving us more time to bargain with your parents," he gloated, looking at Henry. Henry looked away.

_Maggie…we're almost out of time. Dang, we really need a plan. _Then I remembered something that could help us. Henry could read lips as one of his amazing jungle skills, and I could get by if I needed too. If I could only get him to look at me, I could try to talk to him.

The idea came to me suddenly. I sucked in my breath and held it, letting it out in a quick burst once my lungs were fit to pop. I leaned forward a little, as thought I was passing out, but not enough to knock Whitney's head off of my shoulder. Henry turned to look at me, concerned. I didn't face him, but I looked at him from the corner of my eye.

_Henry? _I mouthed slowly. _I'm okay._

Henry stared at me for a moment, his eyes lighting up as he understood what I was doing. _You really scared me there. That was all an act? _He was mouthing things too quickly, and I had problems keeping up.

I nodded. _Do you have a plan? Don't mouth things too fast; I'm not too good at reading lips._

Henry nodded, and began to mouth something back at a pace I could keep up with. _Maybe the beginning of one, but I'm not sure about it yet. Did you bring your phone? Did they find it and confiscate it?_

_ No, I left it back at home. _

_ No problem, they would have confiscated it anyway, didn't you feel them patting us down before we got in the car? It would only be a nuisance if you did bring it._

_ What's your plan?_

_ How tightly are your hands tied?_

I shifted my hands a little, and the ropes dug into my wrists, making them numb. I shifted my hands back to their original position, wincing. _Pretty tightly, I can't move without it hurting. How about yours?_

_ I'm in the same boat. From the looks of things, Whitney's weren't done well, and could probably be slipped if we tried. If they leave us alone, and we can wake her up, we could get ourselves free. That's just a beginning though. _

_ It's a start. It'll help. _I turned to look at Whitney. _She's out, though. I don't know how long it'll last. She's shivering._

Henry made an angry looking face. _Are you cold?_

_ Yes. _

_ Me too, do you know what time it is?_

I squirmed, trying to see my arms, but ending up cutting off my circulation. I hissed in pain, trying to hold back tears.

_Turn away from me, maybe I can see it. _I turned away from Henry, trying to keep Whitney balanced. Henry nodded, so I turned back to face him.

_Did you see it?_

_ Yes. It's almost ten. _

_ Okay. _I shifted slightly.

"Quit moving around so much back there," said the person in the shotgun seat. That was the voice of the person who drugged Whitney. I froze, but promptly sneezed. "I told you to knock it off," he said, and slapped me a couple times, causing me to bite my cheek in the process. My mouth filled slightly with blood. My face stung, and pulled my knees up to my chest, putting my face into my knees. Whitney slipped off of my shoulder, but Henry managed to bite down on her shirt and tug her over to lean against him. It wasn't hard, as none of us were wearing seatbelts.

I pressed my head into my knees against my forehead and cried a little into my knees. I felt embarrassed as it happened, but I couldn't help it. I was tired and scared. My face hurt. My wrists hurt. My head hurt from where it hit the windshield when we had to stop the car suddenly when the people materialized from the shadows. Today had been a horrible day. Finally, I ran out of tears and waited for the car ride to end. I didn't want Henry to know I had been crying, that would be too embarrassing, so I kept my face down. I also didn't want to be slapped again.

Eventually, the car turned onto a gravel road, causing us to bounce around due to our lack of seatbelts. I found myself knocked up against Henry. I hadn't uncurled yet, but could hear Henry's voice in my ear. "Jasper, are you okay?"

I turned my head slightly. "Yeah," I whispered. "Are you?"

Henry ignored the question. "Does your face hurt?"

"Yes. But it's not bad. I wish the car would stop bumping."

"Whitney seems to be snapping out of it a bit," Henry breathed. "She's starting to move around a little bit. She's not awake yet, though."

"Hopefully she will wake up soon."

"Jasper," Henry asked. His voice was different.

"Yes, Henry?"

"This might not be exactly the time, but I think I love her."

I smiled a little to myself. "You go, Henry. You ought to tell her sometime when we aren't trying not to die."

"When should I tell her? What if she doesn't like me back?" he whispered.

"Henry…"

He continued talking without giving me time to properly respond. "I mean, she looks at me…like the girls at school look at me sometimes. Is that good or bad?"

"It's good."

Suddenly, the car slammed the brakes down, knocking me over and causing me to hit my head again. The doors clicked open, and someone pulled me out of the car into the darkness. "There will be absolute silence," a voice warned the three of us. "Until we are inside and you are safely locked up. At that point, feel free to cry or whatever you need to do." I was dragged by my sweatshirt into a building past several rooms and up to what seemed to be two small closets side beside each other. I was pushed into one of them, with Henry and Whitney pushed in after me.

"Henry?" I called out. I couldn't see him in the darkness.

"Jasper, are you alright?" Henry's voice called back.

"Yes, I'm fine. I think we're in a closet or something."

"Can't be," Henry said. "There's a window, it's just covered up with some piece of furniture. I banged into it and felt the glass panes rattle."

"Okay. Is Whitney doing okay?"

"Hold on." I heard Henry shuffle over to her. "Whitney? You awake? No, she's still out." Henry shuffled back over to me, but it was so dark that I couldn't see more than his shape. "Here, Jasper. Get back to back with me. I'm going to try to untie you." We waited in the darkness for about ten minutes before I felt my hands come loose.

"Thanks, Henry. Here," I said, turning around. I felt for the ropes and quickly began untying him. I could see the ropes a little better as my eyes adjusted more and more to the dark. The ends fell free. We both walked over to Whitney. "Whitney?" I asked, bending down and shaking her.

"What? Where are we," Whitney said, sounding bewildered. She tried to sit up, but tipped back over. "What's happening?"

"You've been drugged, so you're a little unsteady," Henry said gently. "We got captured. Now we're at some sort of house in a tiny room. Here, I'm going to untie your hands." Very gently, he took the ropes and untied her hands. "There you go."

"Thanks, Henry," Whitney said, smiling. And then she did something slightly unexpected.

She kissed him.

Henry looked at me, his eyes wide. I nodded a little, and he kissed her back. Not wanting to intrude, I went over to the window, trying to uncover it. Something heavy was in the way, so I couldn't.

We sat in the darkness for a little bit, trying to get warm for nearly an hour. None of mentioned the Kiss, but I could tell that Henry and Whitney were thinking about it. Every once and a while, I'd hit my watch button to see what time it was. A small light would temporarily go up, and we could see each other. I used it sparingly, fearing it would run out.

"What's the plan?" I asked Henry. "Stage one worked well."

"I'm trying to think of a way to get to the window," he said. "We can't let them know we're free, we'll lose the element of surprise. I got it!" He said. "I'll climb to the top and push it from the window with my legs." He stood up and I heard him climb up. I shone my watch to give him some light, only to see a large piece of furniture resembling a cabinet falling near me. I grabbed Whitney's arm and tugged her out of the way. Henry jumped down and held it up. "Push it upright from behind," he hissed.

I got behind the cabinet and pushed it upright so that it stood a couple feet from the wall. I started to open it before the issue happened.

The door swung open, and one of the guards stood in the doorway, looking at us.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve

** I give you Chapter Twelve. Seems a little crazy, I've only been doing this for two weeks. I like the speed of this, though.**

** I'm amazed, twenty-eight reviews already? (I'm not counting the four that I wrote). Still! That's over two per chapter averaged out. Though some chapters seem to get a few more reviews than others *cough Chapter Eight cough*, but that's the way things go and I don't mind. In fact, I like it; it tells me what chapters grab your attention.**

** Thank you and I hope this is a good chapter!**

** P.S: The character introduced in this chapter is not one of the previously mentioned characters (Spy, Driver, and Idiot.)**

Jasper's point of view:

I covered my eyes as the light shone into them, illuminating the dark room. The guard stood in the doorway as a large, bulky silhouette. He stood frozen for a second, shocked, before opening his mouth to sound an alarm. He seemed to think better of it, and closed the door behind him, stepping into our small room.

With the little light that was now coming through our windows, I could see him standing awkwardly in the middle of our room, the key from our door still hanging limply from his hand. "Hey?" he asked, sounding almost afraid.

I didn't respond to him. It was silent in our room.

"Hey?" he tried again, his voice odd and wobbly. I didn't recognise it as any of the voices I had heard so far either in the car or in the darkness. I relaxed a tiny bit, glad that it was at least not the idiot who had slapped me.

"I'm not gonna go sounding the alarm," continued the voice, almost pleading, almost…childlike in its high tone like a little boy's. "I'm done playing this game, it's not fun. This has gone too far."

I didn't like the way he had said 'gone too far', is sounded final, as though something horrible had happened. A shiver went up my spine, and I finally spoke. "What do you mean?"

"It went too far, their game, and I didn't like it. It was okay before, before…I thought it would end and they'd let her go. But you showed up, and they said that they didn't need her…you behaved better than her, what with her biting people and kicking at them…they didn't need her, they knew that two of you were kinda in love, and that was reason enough for cooperation and with the three of you they could spread things out…" I couldn't understand what he was saying.

"Start at the beginning," I said. "What happened?"

"She used to be there, no more, gone now," He said, pointing to the wall. I remembered the other door that I had seen.

"Maggie?" My heart was freezing in my chest.

"They called her Margaret but I think so, dunno… Dark hair, small bones, not very tall?" the voice was slow and high-pitched as though its owner hadn't reached puberty. I wondered if he was okay in the head.

"Yes, that's her. She isn't there anymore?" I asked.

"No… They took the girl outside and told me to come along and I did but I didn't want to go."

"What happened?"

"We went walking. It was really cold and she wasn't walking so well so they told me to pick her up and carry her. We went walking in the woods. I don't like the woods…monsters," he whined. I decided that something was weird up in his head, and I chose my words carefully.

"What happened in the woods?"

"I asked why and they told me to shut up follow, and I do what I'm told. We got in the woods pretty deep and they told me to leave her there. I don't think she was awake."

"Why wasn't she awake?"

"She was kinda beat up. She bit a lot when people touched her and they would get mad and sometimes kick at her and once they messed up and kicked too hard."

I felt my face go red with anger. "Why did they want to leave her?"

"They said that since she was bad with the biting and the kicking at people that they did need her. She was kinda sick and beat up and wouldn't listen when they said what to do. They got tired of her never doing what they wanted her to do and since they had you they decided to leave her. They said that since her three days were gonna be up soon they wanted it to look like that she had died in the woods and then they could just use you three to make the people on the phone do what they said."

"Did you leave her in the woods?"

"Yes, I didn't…didn't think they'd really do it, I thought they were, I dunno, going to scare her. They scared me because I didn't wanna play the game. Monsters, now I do what they say, play the games, good boy, so I thought that they were gonna scare her too. But they walked away and told me to leave her and I did because I do what they say now. I didn't think they'd really let her die, I didn't want her to die, I liked her, she didn't bite me cause I let her borrow my shoes and sometimes I came and talked with her… so I said to myself, I said why these games anymore? So I went back and I put a blanket around her so she wasn't alone with the monsters because she hadn't gone dead yet. And now I'm gonna let you go back home. I don't want no more ghosts coming after me so I gonna let you go, okay? I'm gonna say I never saw you go through the window and you can go."

"Where in the woods is she?"

"She's gonna be dead by now, I think but you can follow our tracks. Are you gonna take her away?

"Yes," I said. I was getting a little freaked out by this guy. Whatever they had done to scare him really messed him up.

"Can you tell her not to come after me? I don't like the monsters, and I don't wanna see her ghost following me either."

"Yeah, I'll tell her."

He smiled really wide. "I got you something." He handed me the car keys.

"Thanks."

"I didn't see," he said, laughing a little. "Good game."

Clutching my keys tightly, I climbed through the window and dropped into the snow. Whitney and Henry dropped down after me.

"That was unexpected," Henry said. "What was up with him?"

"I'm going to assume that he was roped into being part of this, and disobeyed. As punishment, they traumatized him really badly and that was the result," Whitney whispered. We tried to walk as silently as we could around to the woods. Once we got in a few feet, Henry grabbed onto my arm and Whitney's.

"Loosing each other would be bad," he said. I nodded at him. "Don't speak unless you have to. If you see anything, squeeze someone's hand." I nodded again, as did Whitney.

We walked silently through the woods, following the tracks of footsteps and doing our best to step inside of them so as not to leave a trail. For awhile you could see small footprints that looked like Maggie's staggering, but they stopped, so I assumed she had been picked up at that time. We followed the tracks farther, and I heard animal noises echo throughout the empty woods, but we stayed quiet.

Suddenly, I felt Henry squeeze on my hand, and I froze. In a small clearing there was a dirty looking blanket spread over a patch of the snowy ground. My heart pounded in my chest and I rushed over to the blanket, Whitney and Henry right behind me. My hands were numb, but I scrabbled for the corner until I lifted it back. My heart turned to ice.

Maggie. She lay curled up in a ball under the blanket. Someone else's large shoes were on her feet, one half slipped off. Her lips were blue with cold and cracked with dehydration. She looked badly messed up, her face was bruised up and her ankle was obviously still sprained. One hand clutched the other's wrist. "No…" I whispered, denying it. "It…no," my voice broke and I starting to shake.

My frozen heart began to shatter. For the first time in my life, I was looking at death fresh and recent in front of me.

Henry crouched down next to her, cupping one hand and holding it over her face for a little bit. "She's alive," he hissed, knocking my heart back together. "We have to hurry. Jasper, help me. Pick her up, careful though."

I picked Maggie up carefully as though she was a baby, realising that I was crying. "Mags, you awake? Don't sleep…come on, wake back up." I remembered in the back of my mind that you weren't supposed to let someone with hypothermia sleep. I was sure she had hypothermia by now, her lips were so blue and she was really pale. "Henry, what do you want me to do?"

Henry handed me the blanket. "Keep this on her. Can you hold her alright?"

"I've got her," I confirmed.

"I'm going to see what shape she's in once we get back to the car. Keep talking to her. We don't want her to sleep if we can help it."

We rushed back to the car, walking as fast as we could. There was no way to run in the snow, especially with Maggie. We finally got to the car and Henry took the keys out of my pocket and unlocked the door. "Whitney, can you drive?" Henry asked. Whitney nodded, climbing into the driver seat and taking the keys from Henry. "Okay, Jasper, get in the back seat."

I sat in the backseat, holding Maggie on my lap. Henry climbed into the backseat as well, sitting in the middle so that he was right next to me. Whitney turned up the heat as far as it could go and used a stick to try to clear the snow off of the window.

"She's got a bump on her head and some sort of dent in her side," I told Henry. Henry reached over and carefully touched her head.

"Ouch," he said. "I think that's a concussion. He lightly ran his hands down over her, checking for obvious broken bones. When he got to her side, he continued carefully. "Oh…" he said. He pressed lightly on something, and Maggie cried out softly in her sleep, and Henry pulled his hand away. "Sorry, Maggie, sorry," he apologized, biting his lip.

"What is it?"

"Some of her ribs are broken. At least two so far, maybe three," he said. He closed his eyes tight, and then pulled off his shirt. "Here, that blanket's wet," and then stopped. "Jasper…this is awkward."

"What?"

"It isn't good for her to stay in wet clothing…but…" He trailed off, looking at his shirt.

"Here," Whitney said from up front. "The cars almost defrosted," she climbed into the backseat with us and glared at me and Henry. "Close your eyes."

I closed my eyes and waited. "Okay, open them again," Whitney said. She had removed Maggie's shirt and put Henry's shirt on her. "She probably ought to wear your sweatshirt, Jasper," she said, climbing back into the front seat and starting the car. The blanket lay in the shot gun seat with Maggie's shirt wrapped in it. She pulled away from the house quickly.

I pulled my sweatshirt off and put Maggie's arms through it, easing it over her in order not to hurt her ribs.

"Is she shivering yet?" Henry asked.

"No…" I said, so worried that I was beginning to cry again. I held her close to me. "Maggie? Maggie? Wake up, please. Wake up, you're safe now, you're going to be okay." Her lips were a little less blue, and she was starting to shiver slightly. "She's shivering," I told Henry.

Henry nodded, shivering himself. He picked something up off the floor. "Jasper, I thought you didn't bring your cell phone," he said, picking it up.

"I must have brought it and it fell in the back seat," I said. "Never mind that, call my Dad and have him call the hospital. My phone can't be located by emergency services, it doesn't have one of those tracing things that help them find you…my dad knows this area, I don't remember what street we're on."

Henry dialed the phone quickly, calling Dad's cell phone. "Yeah, Uncle, it's Henry. Long story, we found Maggie. She's really badly messed up. Hold on." He held the phone to my face, my arms were busy.

"Jasper…what's going on?"

"We found Maggie." I gave him the address she was at and asked him to call the police. "Sorry, Dad, service is bad here, I got to go. Can you tell the ambulance where we'll be?"

"Of course…I'll meet you at the hospital, Jasper. Say safe."

"Thanks Dad," I said. The phone went dead, and Henry hung it up. I readjusted Maggie so that she was leaning more naturally against me. I continued to talk to her, telling her to wake up, that she was safe now.

An ambulance came roaring around a corner and we stopped. Someone came over to us and saw Maggie through the window. She opened up the door and leaned over her. "Is she hurt badly?"

"We think she has a few broken ribs and might have a concussion," Henry filled in for me. He shivered.

"Are you being followed?" asked the paramedic. I looked over my shoulder.

"I'm not sure. I'm sure they've noticed that we've escaped by now."

The paramedic shuddered. "Okay, I'm going to ask that you get into the ambulance with me quickly. A police car should be here any moment, and they'll drive your car."

I nodded, climbing quickly out of the car with Maggie still cradled close to me. Henry came out after me, looking frozen without his shirt. Whitney handed him the blanket, which he wrapped around himself despite its dampness. Whitney still had Maggie's shirt in her hand. We quickly climbed into the back of the ambulance, where I was told to sit on the hospital bed with her. Henry and Whitney stood awkwardly in the corner, trying to stay out of the way of the paramedic.

"She has a concussion," she confirmed. "Keep her as still as you can. We'll be there shortly."

I nodded and put my mouth close to Maggie's ear. "Wake up Mags," I pleaded, and then stopped. _Might as well_, I argued with myself.

"I love you," I told her.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen

** Here we are at Chapter Thirteen. Ooh, unlucky number thirteen...I'm not superstitious and don't have anything against the number, it's just fun to say. This story may look like its wrapping itself up but it's not...plot twists here we come!**

** This chapter might be a bit boring. Sorry.**

** In this chapter, I'm going to be talking a brief bit about medical equipment in a hospital. I mean very briefly, as in a sentence or two here or there. However, as I am not a medical expert, a lot of things I say could be actually unsound. Sorry, I'll do my best to leave them out. The most obvious thing is where I live, you go to a children's hospital or stay on the pediatric ward if you're under the age of eighteen. I'm sorry if that's not true in most places, so ignore that if it seems wrong. **

**I'm excited; I already have THREE PAGES of reviews. This is amazing! That's well over thirty from you guys, a few from me. I know that I keep bringing this up, but it actually makes me really happy and excited every time I get a review. It just makes me want to update more and more! So no, Vitality Palmer, I am not sick of your reviews, I appreciate them! Thank you for your enthusiastic responses and that goes to all of you!**

**Thank you for reading this story. I'm trying to think up a plot for some other story when I finish this one up but I'm just so busy planning all of this! **

Henry's point of view:

All my life, since I can remember, I have believed that you can do anything, within reason, if you try hard enough and keep fighting at it until you figure it out. Standing there in the ambulance, I was overcome with a feeling of helplessness that I was not used to, and I had no idea how to fight through the situation and find a solution. Even the paramedic wasn't sure how to help Maggie for the moment besides keeping her warm and getting fluids into her once she reached the hospital, which was a ways away still. To make matters worse, she insisted on checking on me because I wasn't wearing a shirt but rather had a soggy and dirty blanket wrapped around my shoulders.

Once she was satisfied that I was okay (which I had been telling her all along), I went over to Jasper, who was leaning against the ambulance walls with Maggie in his arms. She was shivering a lot now. I sat on one side of him, and Whitney sat on the other. I realised for the first time how swollen Jasper's face looked, and how tired he was.

"Jasper," I said carefully. Jasper jumped a little, surprised that I had spoken, and looked at me. There were deep shadows underneath his eyes even where he wasn't bruised. "You looked wiped out; do you want me to carry Maggie for you?"

Jasper shook his head. "I'm good," he insisted.

"You have slept in two nights," I said, seeing the pink and orange tinges in the sky through the window. It was morning, and I felt completely drained despite the nap I had taken for about an hour in the car. I couldn't imagine how he was feeling. Whitney looked wiped too, but Jasper seemed the most exhausted.

"I'll sleep later…I'm not that tired." He smiled at me, but winced when the smile reached the injured part of his face. "Does my face look too bad?"

"It looks pretty beaten up," I told him. I wiped the little bit of blood that had leaked out of his scratch with a corner of my soggy blanket. Jasper smiled at me, but didn't say anything. He was busy watching Maggie, gently tracing the edge of her face with one finger. Maggie stayed uncomfortably still, and Whitney reached over and took Maggie's hand in her own, squeezing it silently. I looked at Maggie, hoping she would open her eyes, but she didn't.

The ambulance pulled into the hospital as the sun was determining it late enough to show over the buildings. Someone yanked the doors open, and Jasper stood up and climbed out of the ambulance. Someone held onto his shoulder to steady him, as he wasn't able to use his hands. I grabbed Whitney's hand, ignoring the pleasant shivery feeling that I got from coming into contact with her, and followed him. People were swarming around Jasper, asking him questions, and eventually a doctor took Maggie from Jasper and put her on a hospital bed. Jasper then froze, his arms hanging uselessly at his side as he watched the bed wheel out of sight. I grabbed Jasper at the elbow and tugged him over to a hospital bench and pushing him into a sitting position. Jasper looked down at his toes, swinging his feet back and forth as thought they were the most interesting thing on earth. Someone came by and gave Jasper an Icepack, which he held to his face. He had taken Maggie's shirt from Whitney and was clutching it close to him with one arm. The wet blanket was lying uselessly on my lap, soaking my pants, but I didn't care. Whitney leaned her head on my shoulder and I put my arm around her shoulder, staring at the front desk.

A few minutes later, someone came over to us and told us that Maggie was on the fifth floor, and though we weren't allowed to see her yet, we could wait on the third floor lobby.

I nodded. "Thank you. If you see my uncle, can you direct him to where we are?"

"Of course," the receptionist said, smiling at me. "I hope she is feeling better soon," she said in a motherly voice.

We headed to the elevator, standing with an elderly man who gave us a strange look and got off on the second floor mumbling about 'half-dressed children in the elevators again.' We exchanged looks and got off at the third floor which was, of course, the children's floor. It felt a little strange to me, Maggie was sixteen, old enough to be an adult in many places, but they still but her on the children's ward. Jasper, Whitney and I stood awkwardly in the cheerfully-painted hallways filled with pictures of healthy children doing activities before making our way to the lobby.

"Can I help you?" asked the lady behind the desk. She looked up at Jasper's face, which he was still holding the icepack against, to Whitney who had huge dark circles under her eyes and a bruise blooming on one cheek, to me, who stood still clutching a dirty, soggy blanket to my bare chest.

"We're here with Margaret Winnock," Whitney said. "We were told she was up on this floor, though we weren't allowed to see her yet."

"Yes, you can't see her yet. She isn't here right now, but this is where she'll end up after they're done assessing her condition in one of the emergency rooms. You're free to stay here as long as you like."

"Thank you," Whitney said, smiling politely. We sat down silently in a small bench, watching as person after person went through the hospital. Although we were all tired, none of us slept.

"They're moving her to the pediatric intensive care ward due to her level of damage and dehydration," the receptionist told us after awhile. "That's on the intensive care floor, on the sixth floor. Sorry."

We nodded at her and went back to the elevators, riding up to the sixth floor. Things felt strange on this floor, everything was blank and white and sterile. We made our way to the lobby, and this time a man sat behind the desk. "Is there something I can do for you?" he asked us.

"We're here with Margaret Winnock," I said, taking my turn at speaking. He nodded and typed into his computer for a few seconds. "Yes, she's going to be in room 623 in the pediatric ward…I'll let you go down there in about half an hour, they need to get her settled.

I nodded again and we sat down again in silence for a long time. Jasper hadn't said anything since we were in the ambulance. "Jasper, are you okay?"

He looked up at me. "Is she okay?"

"She's in the best place to get better."

Jasper put his head back down. "She better be okay," he whispered, sounding like a different person.

"You can go in now, though we ask that you wash your hands before going in." The man behind the desk gestured to the sink behind him, and we washed our hands, trying to get rid of all the dirt and splinters we had gotten from the small room and our trip through the window. Once we were satisfactorily clean, someone came to lead us past rows of doors into a nearly-identical looking hallway marked 'pediatric', where we were asked to wash again. We complied, not wanting to cause problems.

Finally they led us up to room 623. I felt a seizing feeling in my gut as we stepped in the room. There was a huge amount of machinery around Maggie's bed. I could only recognise the EKG monitor tracking her heartbeat and the IV going into her arm.

"She's unconscious right now, feel free to talk to her and come into contact with her, though please don't move her," said our guide. "Once she's better hydrated, we'll move her back down out of the intensive care." The guide left.

Jasper went over to Maggie and pulled up a chair, taking Maggie's hand carefully so as not to touch her IV tubes. "Mags," he whispered, pleading. "Are you awake? This is horrible, please wake up. It'll feel much better if you're awake at least." Something about this moment seemed private between them, and Whitney and I looked away. Whitney put Maggie's shirt, which she had taken from Jasper at some point, on a counter and stood next to me. She found a comb on a bedside table and stood next to Jasper, who seemed broken.

"She hates having her hair messed up," she said, almost to herself. Jasper looked up at her, his eyes full of tears, and she handed him the comb. He brushed it over Maggie's hair nervously, seeming unsure of exactly how to go about things. "Here," Whitney said, taking it back. She started at the top of Maggie's head and combed down through a portion down to the ends. "Like that, gently and don't pull on it. It's just like your hair, only longer and more delicate." Jasper nodded and took the comb back, combing through the rest of her hair carefully. Whitney took the comb back from him and put it on the table. "That's more comfortable for her, see?" Jasper nodded again and looked back down. Whitney gave him a hug and went back over to me, looking sad. I took the place where she had been standing and looked down at Maggie. She looked so beaten up that I found myself trying to cry as well. I put my arm around Jaspers shoulders, feeling him shake as he tried not to cry. Whitney squeezed in next to me.

Eventually someone came back in and asked us to leave, escorting us to a hallway with rooms for the relatives of patients in intensive care. They led us to a room that had been set up for us with three beds. I wondered where uncle was. They said he was still making it back from his meeting when I last asked. Someone came by and gave us cups of tea, which we sipped as we sat in silence.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

**Seventeen days and fourteen chapters later, here we are….at chapter fourteen already! Sigh, it's all going by so fast. Rest assured though, I have many more chapters left in me, and after that who knows? I'll start something new, and if you want you can read that.**

** Thank you to all have reviewed on my story: Animekittenofdeath, xXxZaraxXx, Card's Shadow, rose angel 428, inkshaper, so unnatural, The Star Swordsman, Utmy123, Vitality Palmer, Percy's Girlfriend Pernisha, Hawksky, hundredtimes, NCISlover96, QuietWyatt, Allie357 and Moonlight Djazie. If I forgot any of you by accident, I'm sorry! You all make this so much more enjoyable. To think that at first I was afraid of being told I sucked, but instead I have you wonderful people encouraging me to keep going. Silly me, so THANK YOU! And to everyone who reads this story, author note and all: THANK YOU!**

** This is going to be kind of a boring chapter, but it had to happen somewhere in here. It's a lot of recapping and very little activity. If for nothing else, hang on for the end.**

Whitney's point of view:

Once we were done with our tea, we set the cups aside. "We should probably sleep," Henry said, pulling on a shirt he had found in our room. I nodded in agreement and laid down on one of the beds, closing my eyes. I felt exhausted, but my head was spinning from everything that had happened. I sat up and opened my eyes. Henry was sitting with his eyes open, staring at the wall with a look of utter concentration. He seemed to feel me looking at him, and turned to look at me. He smiled at me, so I went and sat down next to him. He put his arm around my shoulder again, and I felt a little safer.

"I can't sleep," I told him.

"I can't either. Are you feeling alright from the shot?"

I put my hand to where I had gotten the shot, wincing as I applied pressure. "It hurts a little and my head feels a bit foggy, but it's no big deal." I looked over at Jasper, who was lying on his side as he stared at the wall. "Jasper, are you sleeping?"

"No," he responded. His nose sounded slightly blocked up from the crying. "I can't sleep either." He rolled over to face us. "I'm worried."

"This is our best hope," I told him, gesturing to the area around us. Jasper pushed himself up on his arms and looked around.

"But…I just want to be there," Jasper said, biting his lip.

The door to our room came open. "Dad," Jasper asked, looking up.

"Jasper, Henry, Whitney, what on earth?" He looked at us, noticing how beat up we were. "Are you okay?"

"We're fine," Henry put in.

"Did you see Maggie?" Jasper asked. His father shook his head.

"Mr. Winnock is with her right now, he wants to come and talk to you about what happened. I've been looking all over for you, are you sure you're alright?"

"We're fine, Uncle," Henry said. Mr. Bartlett looked relieved and nodded.

"I have to go back to the school," he said.

"But it's a Saturday," I said, surprised.

"Yes, but Friday was the last day of school before the break, we're making sure everything's ready and locked up," Mr. Bartlett said. "I got you excused from missing school; there wasn't really any homework anyway." He glanced at Jasper, and noticed how broken Jasper was looking. He flinched a little, seeming unsure of how to respond to it. "If you're sure you're alright," he said, and left the room without finishing the thought, closing the door on his own confused face.

"Your dad can be a bit clueless, can't he," I said to Jasper. Jasper made a sputtering noise that was some sort of unprepared laugh and nodded.

The door opened again, and Mr. Winnock came into the room. He had tears in his eyes, and he was carrying the shirt Maggie had been wearing.

Jasper looked up at him, his eyes lighting up. "Is Maggie okay?" he asked, sounding like he had been away from her for a lifetime. I glanced around and found a clock, noting that it was nine in the morning already. I didn't know how long I had been here.

"She hasn't changed," Mr. Winnock said tiredly. "She's still unconscious. Thank you for finding her, your dad called me after you left the 911 call," he said, looking at Jasper. "What exactly happened there?"

I started. "I flew in the night she went missing, arriving somewhere around midnight. Mr. Bartlett had me stay at their house. The three of us decided that it didn't make sense that Maggie would have been able to make it to the park with her ankle being twisted, and we assumed something had happened at your house. That night, Jasper remembered that Maggie had installed a camera to check for rats." I turned to look at Jasper, who caught my eye.

Jasper nodded. "I remembered about the camera, and we decided to call the police the next day, which was yesterday. Henry called the police, and the police gave us permission to have a go at Maggie's password. They hadn't cracked it yet, I'm not sure why."

"They were following a lead that later turned out to be false, and thought you could work on that to keep you out of trouble. They didn't think you'd really crack it; they were going to crack it after the lead fell through or worked. Keep going."

Jasper continued. "Henry went upstairs and found Maggie's password under her desk, and we opened up the camera to make sure everything was in it."

"What was her password?" Mr. Winnock asked.

"Museum HJMW," Henry recited, his eyes going unfocused for a second as he remembered. Mr. Winnock nodded and looked at us as though to say 'keep going.'

Jasper looked at me and Henry, and I nodded. "We went back to our house and plugged Maggie's camera into one of the computers and opened up the file. We went through the film and we saw a license plate right after Maggie was taken through a window. Using that license plate, I located the cars owners and we got an address."

"At that point," Henry said, "we received a warning in the form of a note wrapped around a rock thrown through the downstairs window and against my head. It told us not to meddle, or Maggie would die. It also told us that there was a tracer in the phone, so we weren't to call anyone. We got scared, so we went upstairs to our room and climbed under a blanket, writing notes to each other so that we couldn't be recorded. After that, we ate the papers."

Mr. Winnock nodded approvingly. "I'm going to assume you headed out to the address."

"Yes," I said. "But we got stopped along the way by the people who had captured Maggie. It was dark and we couldn't see what was going on. They had us get out of the car and they drugged me," I said, reflexively rubbing the section of my arm where the needle had been. "I went to sleep."

"In the car," Jasper added. "And after that some people began to talk to us, telling us that we had goofed up and now they had no reason to keep Maggie around because she was going to die anyway." His eyes flashed, which was something I had never seen them do before. I shivered. "Somewhere in there, Whitney woke up." He told Maggie's dad all about the encounter with the strange guy who had let us free.

Mr. Winnock nodded. "They gave me a full summary of her condition, and I feel that I should share it with you even though details are normally just kept to family. You did save her life after all. She's badly dehydrated and very exhausted. She hasn't been eating. She has a bad concussion, but the damage suggests multiple blows of medium frequency rather than one or two large blows. She was suffering from hypothermia, but her body temperature is closer to normal now that she's out of the snow. She has three broken ribs and one cracked rib, with lots of bruising all around the area. The broken ribs broke in such a way that they pushed a little farther into her side, causing a 'dent' feeling. Her ankle is still sprained, it looked like it was sprained again somewhere during the ordeal, amounting to even more bruises. She has a enormous about of bruises and scrapes, but most of those are not considered serious. She has a significant level of chemicals in her blood that suggest that she was given an injection similar to yours, Whitney." Mr. Winnock began to tear up again. "To sum it up, she's a mess."

Jasper's eyes, which had been on fire for the whole summary, suddenly watered up as well, and he began to cry. Henry and I began to cry as well, but there was something gentler about the way we cried than the way Jasper cried. Mr. Winnock noticed this, and sat down next to Jasper. "Jasper," he asked.

Jasper looked up at him, still crying.

"Jasper…you…Maggie," he asked, understanding.

Jasper nodded, one word escaping through the sobs. "Love."


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter Fifteen

**Sorry for the somewhat boring last chapter. I felt that I needed to go through the talk with Mr. Bartlett and Mr. Winnock (especially Mr. Winnock, I really wanted him to have a little bit of a talk with Jasper about his newly recognised feelings), and frankly I was a little unsure of what to do with the chapter so I put them in the same chapter to make it of a reasonable length. Apparently I made Jasper's feelings believable, I'm glad. I was afraid that I was going to overdo it. I'm pleased with the ending, though, and from the looks of it, so are you. I got a weird feeling in my chest when I wrote it, it's that feeling I get whenever I write something that is just…right, you know? *giggles* It felt good.**

** I'm probably clueless and didn't notice this when it happened, but today I realised that this story is underneath a community for good Jasper + Maggie stories. Thank you to whoever put this there, it means a LOT to me.**

Jasper's point of view:

Maggie's dad stared at me for a few, stretching seconds, and I felt my face turn red with shame and nervousness as my heart pounded in my chest. _How could you be so stupid? She doesn't know yet and you already told her dad? He's part of the air force; he probably has seventy-nine rules at least on who's allowed to date his daughter. _

Mr. Winnock stared at me a second before a smile started up his face. "Jasper…that's great," he said softly, sounding both sad and happy. "That's great…"

"But I'm afraid," I admitted.

"Of Maggie," he asked, serious now.

"A little," I whispered. "Mostly…mostly of what she'll say, I've asked her out before and she didn't say anything. We haven't talked about that since." I trailed off, ashamed. I felt very tired, and was worried once again about what Mr. Winnock would think of me.

Mr. Winnock put a large, strong hand on my shoulder. "I am not in control of Maggie's heart, and I don't know the inside of her mind. But I am her father, and you're a good, smart, kind boy. I'll trust her heart to you if she will."

"Thank you, Mr. Winnock," I said, smiling. He smiled back at me and glanced at the watch he wore on this left wrist.

"I have to go back to work," he said, looking angry and sad. "But I'll come back as often as I can. I'll give you a call every so often, and you can have someone call me if anything changes. Your bags are being sent up here, your dad brought them, Jasper." He stood up and patted me on the shoulder before leaving.

Henry smiled at me. I rolled my eyes at him, but Henry's grin grew wider. "How long have you known," I asked.

"Since day one, the first day I saw you together. It was obvious," he said, gloating a little. I smacked him in the arm, which only made him laugh harder.

Whitney gave me a smile and pulled her knees up to her chest. "I feel gross," she said, half-laughing and she combed her hands through her tangled hair. "I wonder if there is anywhere we can go to rinse off, I don't want the dirt of that place clinging onto me." I nodded, knowing how she felt. Every trace of that place was like the smell after a fire, keeping you on edge. I rubbed my hands against my face and instantly regretted it as I knocked against the bruises and swelling. I pulled my hands away from my face before I could cause myself more damage. _Where did I leave that icepack, _I asked myself, but was unable to remember.

Eventually someone came to our room and dropped off three bags. Dad had sent in Whitney's luggage, and had stuffed some clothing and supplies into garbage bags for Henry and me. "Excuse me," Henry asked. The person looked at him as though confused. "Is there anywhere we can go to rinse off?"

"Down this hallway," the worker said, pointing. "In the facilities for the family of the patients, please do not move into the critical wards." We nodded, and he left. Henry and I dug through our bags. Dad had packed us each several complete changes of clothing, some money, a blanket, a toothbrush, and floss. I had a tube of toothpaste and a comb, while Henry was holding the deodorant and a bar of soap.

"Guess we're sharing some stuff," Henry said.

"Guess so. Dad forgot the shampoo," I said, running my hands through my messy hair.

"If we go in shifts, you can borrow mine," Whitney said, holding up a travel-bottle of shampoo that she had gotten out of her luggage. "One of us should probably remain here at all times, just in case."

"You can take the first shower," Henry offered. Whitney smiled and gathered up her stuff, leaving to the shower. Henry and I sat on the beds silently for awhile, watching snow fall outside of our window. I could feel my head slowly getting cloudier, but I ignored it.

"Are you sure you don't want to sleep?" Henry asked me, eyeing me with concern. "You have slept for two nights."

"I want to be awake if something happens," I said stubbornly.

"We'd wake you up if something changed with her condition. Honestly, we would. You don't have to sleep very long, maybe just an hour once we got done with our showers. It'll help you be more alert."

"Aren't you tired too?" I felt myself relenting, and didn't really feel like fighting it. I had been feeling exhausted since we got pulled over by the idiots on the way there. It had hit me then, and had only been getting worse after that.

"Yes, I am. But we should sleep in shifts in case something happens," Henry said logically. We waited a little bit and Whitney came back in a different set of clothing, shivering. "Are you okay," Henry asked, concerned.

"Had problems finding the hot water," Whitney said with a small laugh. "Here's the shampoo. I'll stay here if you both want to go take your showers now. You can hand soap and stuff over the stalls, they aren't all that private."

I took the shampoo from her and a set of clothing. "Bring the soap, Henry," I said, and waited at the door for him. Eventually he found a matching set of clothing and followed me through the door. We went to the showers and found two empty stall that were right next to each other. I climbed into one and undressed, wrapping a towel around myself as I climbed back out of the stall temporarily. "Let's put our clothing in the same locker," I told Henry. Henry came out, also wrapped in a towel, and we chose a locker and put our clothing in it. I let Henry choose the code, and we took our showers.

Sharing a bottle of shampoo and a bar of soap was tricky; Henry kept dropping the soap whenever I asked for it and it would slip around until he could grab it again. Finally, when we were both clean, we got out of the shower and Henry unlocked the locker so that we could get our clothes back. We went back into our respective stalls and dressed before going back to our room.

When we got to our room, I sat down on my bed. There was a rushing feeling to my head as I nearly went to sleep sitting up.

"Jasper," Whitney said, laughing a little. "Lie down before you go to sleep."

I listened to her advice, watching as snow continued down outside my window. "You will wake me if something happens, won't you?"

"Of course," Henry said. Whitney made a sound of agreement. "I would say we should all sleep," Henry continued. "But someone ought to stay awake. Jasper is exhausted, and Whitney, you still have some weird chemicals going through you, so I'll take the first watch. I'll wake someone up in two hours and they can watch after that point."

"Okay," I said, mumbling sleepily. I went to sleep before they could say anything else.

It felt like only a few seconds had passed before Whitney woke me up. "Jasper," she said, shaking my shoulder. Someone had put the blanket that dad had packed for me over me while I slept. "Jasper, we're going to go eat." The mention of food made me feel hollow as I tried to remember the last time I had eaten. I gave up, and we went down the elevator. It was very cold and we were still wet, so we all got soup and drank it quickly. On the way up, I glanced at my watch. It was nearly one in the afternoon.

"How long was I asleep?" I demanded.

"About five hours," Henry said. "Do you feel better?" His voice had an odd note to it that worried me.

"Yes. Did anything happen?"

Henry and Whitney looked downcast and worried. "What?" I said, beginning to panic. "What happened? Why didn't you wake me up?" I had begun to shake with suppressed panic.

Henry pulled me back into our room and Whitney closed the door. I realised that she was crying. Henry put his hands on my shoulders, looking into my eyes in a very serious way that sent chills down my back. Something was definitely wrong, Henry never acted like that. "Jasper, calm down, we tried to wake you up but you just kept staying asleep no matter what we did. Someone came by and said that she was getting worse. We weren't able to go to see her because her cold is developing into something worse, and they don't want us accidently spreading any germs to her because her immune system is so low she can't fight diseases off anymore. They said they moved her to a different room. It's one of those rooms where no one but her doctor is allowed in. We would have woken you up if we could." Henry stopped talking and shook me a little, tears coming up to his eyes. "I'm sorry, Jasper. I'm sorry."

I shook my head, denying what I was hearing, and knocked Henry's hands off my shoulders, walking out of the room. "Jasper," Whitney called after me with tears in her voice, and I heard footsteps following me, so I took off at a run, sliding into an elevator and closing the doors before they could follow me. I pressed the button that would take me to the ground floor, feeling the tears starting to slide down my face and onto the sweatshirt Dad had packed for me. I brushed at them angrily, smearing them on the back of my hands as I reached the lobby. Without looking at anyone, I rushed outside, ignoring the snow that blew into my hood and melted against my hair as I kicked a patch of snow angrily off the curb. I sat down on the curb, ignoring the snow that was soaking through my jeans and watched snowflakes fall onto my shoes. It was peaceful in an aching sort of way.

"Jasper?" a voice I didn't recognise asked. "Jasper Bartlett, is that you?" I looked up through my almost-frozen lashes, a load of snow falling off my head as I moved it. A doctor was standing over me. Then I recognised him, he was the doctor who had taken Maggie from me, he was the one looking after her. "Jasper, what are you doing?"

"Is she okay? Is she awake?"

The doctor grabbed me by the arms and stood me up. "She hasn't woken. Maggie is ill, but I doubt she would want you to join her in that state. Come back inside, please."

"When will I be able to see her?" I asked through chattering teeth. The doctor lead me back inside.

"We're going to try for tomorrow. Here, I was heading out to get some more toothpaste as it's my break, but I think you ought to have some tea before your pants freeze to you." He led me over to a private area and made me a cup of tea. I sat there, shivering myself farther into depression as he put the cup before me. "Drink this." I held the cup in between my hands, enjoying the warmth as I drank. "There, you look a little more human now." He bent over me, checking me over. "Oh good, no hyperthermia, it looks like I found you just in time. Have you finished your tea? Here, I'll walk you up to your room." He led me back to my room, where Henry and Whitney were pacing around.

"Jasper," Whitney cried when she saw me. She wrapped her arms around me in a relieved hug. "Oh my goodness, you're soaked! You need to put dry clothing on. Did you go outside? We were so worried, don't _do_ that. We had no clue where you went, we looked everywhere we could but they told us to stay here in case you came back." She pulled back away from me and looked me in the eyes. "Jasper," she started, sounding frightened. The doctor put his hand on Whitney's shoulders, gesturing for Henry and her to follow him outside. They complied, and I pulled my pants off, changing to dry pants, and removed my wet sweatshirt and shirt. I pulled on a dry sweatshirt and sat on my bed, staring at the corner a few inches from my face so no one would have an excuse to look at me. I could hear words through the door._ Distressed_, _obviously concerned, Jasper, visit, tomorrow, sleep. _ I heard Whitney and Henry come back in, the doctor had obviously left. Henry and Whitney walked over to my bedside. Henry rolled me over so that I was looking at them. A tear slipped down his cheek.

"Jasper, don't ever do that again, please," Henry said in all seriousness. He tried to look me in the eyes, but I stared through him. "Don't leave again, that was terrifying. They're pretty sure she'll be alright, she just needs help." He gave up and found my blanket, pulling it over me. "She's going to be okay, Jasper. She's Maggie. We're going to try to see her tomorrow if she isn't any worse."

"I'm sorry," I whispered quietly. Another tear slipped down Henry's face.

"Don't. We just have to stick together in this because this is tough. I'll wake you up in a little bit, okay cuz?"

I laughed his attempt at twenty-first century talk. "Okay." I agreed. I closed my eyes and fell asleep to the comforting feeling of having someone watching over you.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen

**Hope that last chapter wasn't too dramatic. I didn't know exactly how someone is supposed to react to that sort of situation. **

** Last night I planned out exactly where I want this story to go. At the rate these chapters are covering the story, there will be at least twenty chapters, probably some more. There will be a lot of twists and turns. I mean, can you imagine Henry and Jasper letting these people just get away with this? I can't. **

** I got to hand it to you guys, you guys are amazing. I came onto my email this morning, and nearly died of shock. There were FIVE reviews. That is the most I have ever seen in one sitting. So of course, I rushed to my story to read them (I prefer to read them through my story because it's nice to have them all collected into one place), and I was overwhelmed with a feeling of joy and excitement. There are now fifty-seven reviews to date. Six of them are mine. That means you have given me fifty-one reviews. If I could find you, I would hug you all!**

** I know, I know. You're all thinking: **_**Get with the story girl; this author's note is over 200 words of your hyperactive babbling, **_**so here we go!**

** PS: I use a little bit of Russian in this chapter. If it's wrong, forgive me please and feel free to correct me. It's only one sentence, though it's said a couple of times.**

Henry's point of view:

I let out a sigh of relief as Jasper went to sleep. _What were you thinking? _I asked him in my head, sounding concerned even in my mental voice. I knew I wasn't about to get a response, so I stood up and walked away from his bed so that he could sleep in peace.

I went over to sit by Whitney, who was watching the snow fall past our window as she sat silently on her bed. Wordlessly, she pressed her head against my shoulder and I leaned my head on top of her head.

"Is he going to be okay?" she asked.

"I think so. He just needs to calm down and clear his head."

"This is hard," she said, pressing her lips together as though she was going to cry again. I wrapped one arm around her and held her against me; beginning to hum a song I had learned somewhere. It distracted her, and she looked up at me, seeming surprised for some reason. "What are you humming?"

"Something I learned somewhere. I forgot who taught it to me, but I like the way it sounds. Do you know it? I've been trying to figure out what it means, but no one else seems to recognise it."

"I think I know it. It reminds me of something I have heard before." She began to hum along to the song, smiling a little as we reached the end together. "I remember now. My grandma used to sing it for us." She began to sing something quietly to herself in Russia. The melody was right, but the words didn't seem like the ones I half-remembered. "Is that it?"

"That's the same song. I just don't think I learned it in Russian. Whitney?" I asked. My face turned red.

"Yes?"

"How do you say 'I love you' in Russian," I asked, turning redder still.

"Ya tebya liubliu," she responded.

"Well then Whitney, ya tebya liubliu," I said, carefully echoing her. My heart pounded in my chest, and I wondered if she could hear it.

She smiled "Ya tebya liubliu, Henry."

We sat there for a little bit silently, enjoying each other's company before Whitney went to sleep against my shoulders. Carefully, I leaned her back until she was lying down all the way. I pulled her blanket over her so that she could sleep comfortably and went to sit on my own bed, which was closest to the door, and watched people walk back and forth along the hallway. _Henry Griffin, on guard,_ I thought to myself, smiling a little at the thought. I wish I had my drums; they never ceased to help me relax a little. Pulling my feet up onto the bed, I sat cross-legged on my bed and patted on my kneecaps as though they were drums. It made me sad, and I thought about my parents. I knew they had been contacted and told that we were safe, but I missed them.

After three or four hours of makeshift bongos, someone came over to our doorway. I looked up. It was the person who had come to tell us when Maggie was being moved. "Is something wrong? Is her cold getting worse?" I asked, my eyes widening in worry.

He shook his head. "No, she's the same as she was; her cold seems to be stable, not very serious as far as we can tell. It was a precaution to move her. I brought you something to eat." He handed me three thermoses of soup. "You'll be able to go see her tomorrow morning if her cold doesn't seem to be developing into anything worse. Make sure you get sleep tonight; we'll wake you if something comes up. Are all of you fine?"

"Yes, we're fine. Thank you," I said, smiling. I was feeling exhausted again. He nodded and left without another word. I went over to Whitney and Jasper, shaking them awake. "Wake up, I got dinner."

"What is it?" Jasper asked. I was glad to see he seemed a little more like himself.

"Soup," I responded, handing him his thermos and handing another to Whitney. Jasper opened it up and took a sip.

"It's good, did someone bring it?"

"Yes. And he said that we can see Maggie in the morning if her cold isn't developing into something more serious. It doesn't seem to be, they were just worried about it." I took a sip of my soup. "It is good," I agreed, surprised. "We can all sleep tonight, they promised to wake us if something happens."

Whitney nodded and yawned. "Why are we always so tired?" she asked, sleepily. She set her thermos to the side, she had finished her soup.

"We haven't been sleeping nights and we took a nice hike through the woods last night. Plus, our adrenaline is finally crashing," Jasper hypothesized, setting his to the side as well. I put mine next to theirs.

"Sounds reasonable," Whitney said. She lied back down on her bed and stared at the ceiling. "Come on, adrenaline, just quit it. I don't need you right now." She started to laugh, and Jasper and I laughed too, flopping down on the bed next to her. It didn't really make sense, but we did. Once it finally finished, we stayed there for awhile, looking at the ceiling until we eventually fell asleep.

I awoke in the morning to sunlight hitting me on the face and shining into my eyes. Whitney had her head on my chest and I had one arm across Jasper's face. I was the only one awake, and I moved my arm off of Jasper's face. I thought about standing up, but decided that I didn't want to disturb Whitney, so I remained lying down, staring at the window and snow continued to fall. Eventually, Jasper and Whitney woke up. Whitney noticed she was lying on me and blushed. "Sorry," she said, her face a vivid shade of red.

"Don't worry about it, its fine. I woke up with my arm over Jasper's face; I think we all invaded each other's personal space last night." We laughed a little at that before untangling ourselves and standing up.

"Would you like to go see her?" asked a voice. We whirled around to see Maggie's doctor looking at us.

"Can we?" Jasper asked, sounding overjoyed.

"Yes, come with me please," said the doctor. We followed him to a station where we could wash our hands. We washed our hands carefully, making sure to get any traces of bacteria off of ourselves so as not to make Maggie any worse. "She's doing alright, she hasn't awoken yet but we think her cold should not be getting any worse. We moved her back to the room she was in when you last saw her." He led us to the room and left. I went over to Maggie and looked down at her. She seemed paler than before. Her blanket had been kicked down to nearly her feet, and for the first time I could see just how badly she was messed up. Bandages wrapped around her ankle where it was sprained. One of her arms was wrapped from shoulder to hand in white bandages. I remembered the cut she had received and understood why. Her other arm had the IV in it still. She still had the EKG attached to her. The lip of her hospital dress had pulled up a little, and I could see the bruises that stretched down one side of her rib cage.

Jasper hadn't made it over to where I was yet, so I quickly pulled her blanket up to her shoulder to hide most of the damage. Her bandaged arm was still out from under the blankets, but I didn't want to hurt her by moving it, so I let it be. Jasper came over to where I was standing. He took Maggie's bandaged arm gently and squeezed her hand. "Mags, you awake yet? Open your eyes, please. Please open your eyes. Can you hear me?" he asked, leaning close to her. She stirred a little, mumbling something, but didn't open her eyes. I carefully put one hand to the side of her face. Her face was hot, as though she was running a fever, which worried me. I shifted my hand to the side of her neck, feeling her pulse bump around in her neck. It felt normal, so I relaxed and let Whitney past me. Whitney found the comb again and began to comb through Maggie's hair gently, even though it wasn't all that messed up. Her comb snagged on a knot in Maggie's hair and Maggie let out a cry of pain and did something amazing.

She opened her eyes.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter Seventeen

** Reviews are like cookies: They make me happy, and happiness makes me type and type and type until my hands fall off and they need to be put back on by those surgery people at the hospital. They're also like cookies because they make me hyper. Right now, my mom is wondering why I am sitting here with a maniacal grin on my face giggling quietly to myself and bouncing up and down a little in my seat. Oh, wonderful reviewers, if I could find you, I would let you have one of my precious cookies each! And that is a big offer, as I love my cookies.**

** Okay, this might be one of my shorter author notes lately, so be proud of me. Here we go, Chapter Seventeen.**

Jasper's point of view:

"Mags," Henry said softly. "You're awake?"

I looked up from Maggie's hand and saw that her eyes were opened. My heart sounded like Henry's bongos in my chest, my heart was beating and leaping up and down so quickly I was afraid I was going to be sick. "Maggie?" I said quietly, unable to keep a smile out of my voice. I didn't want to startle her, so I spoke very softly.

Maggie didn't seem to hear me. Her eyes flickered back and forth across the room unseeingly, reminding me of REM sleep. It looked like she was dreaming with her eyes open. I squeezed her hand gently, careful to avoid her bandages. "Mags, can you hear me? Are you okay? Henry," I said, looking up at him. "What's going on?" He put his hand carefully back against Maggie's face.

"I'm not sure, my hands might be cold, but I think she's feverish," he said, seeming worried. "Whitney? Can you go look for a doctor?" Whitney nodded and left the room. "Hold on," Henry said, seeming abruptly angry.

"What is it?" I said. I put my hand on the other side of Maggie's face. "You're right, she's feverish. What did you find?"

"I remembered something. When you left yesterday, Maggie's doctor went after you. At the same time, he was supposedly prescribing some sort of medication for Maggie that was supposed to be introduced this morning according to a nurse I spoke with. That's impossible; one of the doctors was an imposter."

I opened my eyes so wide I thought they were going to fall out. "The doctor who got me had keys to rooms and knew where we were staying. Everyone greeted him and knew who he was."

"While the doctor who prescribed Maggie's medication was by himself…when he ought to have been on break. Everyone thought he was just working overtime… I bet it was one of them again."

I looked down at Maggie. She seemed to be breathing too quickly and her eyes were still darting back and forth. "Do you think they poisoned her?"

"They might have," Henry said. He bit his lip hard. "Whitney needs to find the doctors…the real doctors. How will we know?"

"I'll ask him what he got at the store yesterday. The real doctor told me he was out to get toothpaste."

Henry nodded. "Good."

I squeezed Maggie's hand gently again. At about the same time, Whitney came back into the room with the doctor, who attempted to push past me to get near to Maggie. I got in his way.

"Jasper," he asked, seeming very confused. "What are you doing? Let me through."

"No offense, but prove that you're you." He looked at me in confusion. "What did you go to the store to get yesterday?"

"I was going to get toothpaste. But I brought you inside when I found you sitting on the curb and had to get the toothpaste afterwards. Why?"

"Sorry. You have an imposter, and we had to make sure it was you," I said, relieved that we had found the real doctor.

He stiffened. "What do you mean?"

"Yesterday when you found Jasper outside, someone using your name was up here. A nurse told me that you had asked to be 'left alone while you prescribed a medication' for Maggie, that would be used starting this morning," Henry said. "Soon after we came to see her, we realised that though her eyes are open, she can't see us, and she's running a fever. We think that she was poisoned or given the wrong type of medication, potentially on purpose."

I let the doctor past me, and he touched Maggie's forehead. "Yes, she's running a fever." He shone a light in Maggie's eyes, which had finally stopped darting around. I didn't know if this was good or bad. The doctor saw that her pupils weren't contracting and made a nervous face. "I think she's delirious. I need her medical documents to see what they gave her, give me a second to get them. The password is museum; don't let anyone near her who can't tell you that." He rushed out of the room quickly. Whitney, who had missed the exchange between me and Henry, looked at us with surprise.

"You think she was poisoned," she asked, her eyes wide. She didn't wait for our answer, knowing by our facial expressions, and bent over Maggie, who had closed her eyes by this point. She put her hands gently under Maggie's shoulders and lifted her up slightly, giving her a hug. "Please be okay, Maggie. Please be okay." She let Maggie lie back down, but brushed her hair out of her face. "She is too warm."

The doctor came bursting back through. "Museum," said, and I let him past me. He set down a pile of papers and quickly detached Maggie's IV. "I found out what they gave her, and yes, this is considered poisoning. The unfortunate thing is they gave it to her through her IV. With most poisons, you can remove it by having the victim vomit, but since it was put directly into her blood with the IV, we don't have much we can do. The good news is it isn't very strong, but as she is very weak, there is a chance that it can hurt her pretty badly if not kill her. Two of you need to talk to some police officers about this, while one of you needs to stay with her in case she gets worse.

I squeezed Maggie's hand. "I'll stay," I offered. The doctor nodded.

"Don't let anyone near her unless they know the password. Keep her EKG attached, and if her heart rate changes call me immediately. I have to go with Whitney and Jasper to explain that it really wasn't me who gave it to her, but I'll come back if something goes wrong with her. Press this if something happens." He handed me a small device with one button on it. "It'll beep to alarm me and you'll be able to tell me what's going on; I have one of my own. I'll come immediately if it beeps, whether or not you relay a message. We'll be back soon." He and Henry and Whitney went out of the room. Henry looked over his shoulder at me.

_Be careful, _he mouthed.

_I will. Come back soon, please, _I mouthed back.

He nodded and left, closing the door behind them. I dragged a chair next to Maggie's chair and sat down right next to her, never letting go of her hand. "Maggie?" I whispered. "Maggie, come on, wake up please." I tapped her hand lightly, and she shifted a little. "Wake up, please. You're going to be okay. Please wake up; I'm watching over you, you're safe. Do you hear me? You're going to be okay, just please open your eyes."

Maggie mumbled something. I put my face close to hers. "Did you say something?" I asked.

She didn't respond. She was still asleep. I glanced up at her EKG. Her heart was quite a bit fast, but it was steady at this pace.

Suddenly, I heard the door click open. I spun around quickly, seeing someone stand in the doorway. Grabbing my little device in my free hand, I spun around. A doctor was standing in my room, looking at me.

"Password," I demanded, my voice shaking.

"What do you mean by 'password'? This is a hospital and I'm a doctor. If anyone, you should be the one not allowed to be near her. Now let me through please."

I looked into his face. "I recognise you," I said, surprised. It was true. I remembered him. He was one of the faces in the dark when they pulled us off the road. I pressed the button on my device, my heart pounding in my chest.

"You do, don't you. You know too much, Jasper. You were too perceptive. If you hadn't figured it out, she'd be dead. But she's still going to die. She knows too much. You know too much. Your cousin and your friend know too much. They'll be next, but now I'll take care of you two." He stepped closer to me, and before I knew what was happening, he smacked me in the face and I hit my head against Maggie's bed, falling to the ground and hitting my head again on the floor. I was stunned. The 'doctor' grabbed a pillow out from under Maggie and pushed it into my face, choking me. I kicked at his face, but was unable to reach him. I felt dizzy; unable to take a breath through Maggie's pillow, and blackness swam up over my vision.

I awoke to green eyes staring worriedly into my face. "Jasper," Henry asked, crouching down next to me. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah…what…"

"We got your alert. We could hear you talking and it sounded like there was a fight. When we came in you were lying on the floor like you were dead and Maggie's EKG thing was going nuts like she hadn't been breathing. What on earth happened?"

"The other voice you heard. It was one of them. They broke in and tried to choke me. They said Maggie and I had to die because we knew too much. I hit my head," I said, wincing, "and he held a pillow over my face and tried to choke me. Is Maggie alright?"

"She's fine. They said that he poison shouldn't mess her up too bad, it will run its course in less than an hour because we caught it early. We only got here a minute or two ago, you're still in her room." He helped me stand up. I tried to walk over to Maggie but was too dizzy. "Jasper, hang on. You just woke up. Sit down." Henry pushed me into my chair, which had been pulled over near to me. Whitney came into the room and rushed over to me. She didn't say anything, but hugged me tightly. I hugged her back, glad for the contact. A police officer came into the room, followed by my dad.

"Dad," I asked.

"Jasper, thank goodness. I was just arriving to check on you three and they told me you had been found passed out on the floor! Are you alright?"

"Killer headache," I grumbled. One of the doctors pulled me aside and shone a light in my eyes. He checked my pulse and pronounced that I was okay. A police officer pulled me aside next.

"What exactly did this person say? We came in and he was gone. Did he threaten you?"

"I told him that I remembered him from what happened when we went to rescue Maggie. He said that Maggie and I were going to die because we knew too much. He said that Henry and Whitney were going to die too." I began to tremble as the weight of what had happened hit me. A doctor took me aside again, this time the one who I remembered. "Are these guys safe?" I asked him quietly.

"Yes, I can vouch for them, museum by the way." He laid a hand on my shoulder. "You're shaking, Jasper. I think its shock."

I nodded, but went back into the room to stand by Henry, who looked at me with concern. "You're going into shock?"

"You heard that?"

"Of course," Henry said. "I wasn't that far away."

"Henry, he threatened all of us. If I hadn't gotten that signal out, Maggie and I would be dead now."

Henry pushed me down into the chair again. "Everyone is okay. Try to calm down. Take deep breaths. The four of us are okay."

"I couldn't fight back! I couldn't protect her!"

"You did amazingly. If you hadn't been there, Maggie would be dead for sure. You saved her, Jasper. Don't forget that."

I tried to take a deep breath. "Henry?" I said.

"Yes?"

"I think I'm going to pass out," I said. My head hurt and I was dizzy. Time was moving too fast and too slow all at once. Henry put his hands on my shoulders.

"I've got you. You probably need to sleep. I'll catch you if you go out."

"Promise," I said, wanting to be sure.

"Of course," he said. "I got you. You're okay."

"Good," I mumbled, passing out almost instantly.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter Eighteen

** Guess who was up until four in the morning brainstorming exactly what she wants to happen with this story? That's right! Me! Now, I'm tired, and I'm a little out of witty things to say due to this tiredness. I hope that last chapter was suspenseful enough for everyone. It wasn't the way I originally planned it to go, but quite frankly, I like that way better. This author's note might be under 100 words. That's AMAZING! Anyway, on with things, as I'm sure you'd like to see what happens.**

Whitney's point of view:

"Whitney? Can you give me a hand here?" Henry asked. I had just come back from speaking with Jasper's dad and looked around for a second. I saw him standing in front of a chair, supporting Jasper who had passed out or gone to sleep while sitting in the chair.

"Is he okay?" I asked.

"They think he's going into shock, it's not very bad and he's just trying to process everything that happened. He needs to sleep it off; I just think he ought to do it on a bed rather than right here. Can you ask the police officers if leaving is okay? I don't want them to think we disappeared or anything."

"Of course I will. I'll be right back." Walking up to the policeman, I was overwhelmed by a feeling of nervousness. I ducked my head a little, hoping they wouldn't recognise me as the Sputnik girl. No one had so far, but I was still nervous that someone would. "Excuse me," I said politely to the nearest police officer. He looked at me without the spark of recognition that I feared.

"Yes?" He seemed a little surprised. "Can I help you?"

"Jasper has gone to sleep, would it be alright for Henry and me to move him to the room we have been staying at? We don't want to cause any issues, but it might be best."

"Give me one second; we may need to post guards by your rooms in order to keep you safe. I'll be right back." He went over to speak with another police officer, who nodded and said something to him that I was unable to hear. The original police officer came back over to me. "Yes, you, Henry and Jasper may go back to your room. I will be standing guard by your room to keep an eye on you. Someone else will be standing guard here just in case."

"Thank you." I went back over to Henry. "Henry, the police man says we are allowed to move Jasper back to our room. Someone is going to stand guard by our room to make sure no one can get to us, while another officer will stay here in case."

Henry nodded. "Sounds good," he said, picking Jasper up and walking out of the room. When we made it to our room, we found that the policeman that I had talked too was already there, sitting in a chair near our door. He let us past, and we went into our room and closed the door. Henry put Jasper on his bed, and then sat down next to me on mine.

"What are they going to do about the poison," I asked him. I felt so out of it, I only knew bits and pieces of the story with the constant tugging between people who had wanted to talk to me about what we had heard.

"They're giving her something that will help her pass the poison through. Since we caught it early enough, they don't think it's going to really hurt her too badly. They're expecting her to wake up for real soon; once she does they might be able to prepare to send her back home."

"That's good," I said. I couldn't imagine anyone would want to stay in a hospital long term.

"You're awfully quiet. Are you okay?" He was looking at me with big, concerned eyes.

"I'm afraid. I'm afraid for you and for Maggie and for Jasper and for myself. I'm afraid they're going to get in again and they'll succeed in hurting someone this time."

"I'm afraid too," he told me. "That was too close. You seemed afraid of the police officers," he commented, changing the subject.

"I'm afraid they'll remember me from the Sputnik episode. I don't really want anyone looking into my life; I've had enough of that with the investigations and everything."

"I understand."

"You've probably done it all before, haven't you? Everyone picking through your private business all the time, you've seen it tons of times, haven't you?"

"Yes. But I don't like it any more than you do," Henry admitted, making a face

"Being the Dean's son is similar," Jasper said with his eyes still closed. "Everyone's always finding away to exploit you by sucking up to you, or wants your head on a stick in their front yard."

"Nice for you to join us," Henry commented dryly. "How long have you been awake?"

"I woke up when I heard the word Sputnik. Never fails to make me alert after those idiots in Russian Mob," Jasper said, opening his eyes. "Have I been out long?"

"No, not really, we just brought you hear and talked for a little bit before you woke up. There's a policeman outside our door to make sure no one comes in and tries to hurt us."

"Is someone guarding Maggie?" Jasper asked. I smiled; it was so obvious that he loved her.

"Yes. They're giving her something, I have no idea what though, and that's going to help her pass the poison through. Apparently she didn't get too much into her system. Are you feeling alright?" I asked. I felt like I was going crazy, I was worried about all of us but didn't have enough of me to do that.

"Yes. I was just feeling dizzy back there. Bad headache and stuff, I just couldn't stay awake."

"Understandable. You were being choked," Henry said. "Is the dizziness gone now?"

"Yeah, it's gone; I'm amazingly not tired anymore. Some sort of adrenaline crash, I'm sure." Jasper stood up and began to pace around the room. "What I can't figure out is how he got away in time. I sent my alert out before he started choking me, and it was a mere matter of minutes before you made it to our room. There just doesn't seem to be enough time for him to have escaped the hospital.

"What if he didn't leave the hospital?" I asked. "What if he's still here?"

Henry and Jasper looked up at me. "I bet that's it," Henry whispered.

"So what, they're some sort of chameleons?" Jasper asked. "How on earth are we going to find someone who can change rolls in minutes?"

Henry shook his head. "I don't know. We have to watch each other's backs though. Here," he said, grabbing a ballpoint pen. "This doesn't really last for long, but since we know that we three are who we say we are, we can mark ourselves so we know we can share things with each other."

"Okay, sounds good," Jasper said. Henry carefully drew a Chinese character on our arms, right on the wrist of our left arm.

"What's that?" I asked, looking at my symbol.

"It's a Chinese symbol," Henry said.

"What does it mean, though?" Jasper said, staring at it.

"It means trust. So we know we can trust whoever has this," Henry explained, looking at his own. He nodded in an approving fashion.

"It's pretty," I said, carefully tracing it with one finger.

"Keep your sleeve down over it. We don't want anyone who may be watching us to figure out that it's important," Jasper said. I nodded and yanked my sleeve down so that no one could see it. It gave me a safe feeling that I didn't quite understand.

"We need to stick together," Henry said. "I don't want anyone being left or going anywhere by themselves. Oh, I forgot," he said. "One of the police officers gave me this." He pulled an alert signaler out of his pocket. "We're to use this in emergencies; it's hooked to an alert with a policeman and an alert to a doctor. However, we can never prove that the person on the other end is a safe person to tell things too. If possible, do all your discussions that you can face to face. This is another reason why we must stay together. This is the only one I was given, so only one person can have it with them if we separate. That's dangerous."

Jasper and I were about to agree when footsteps came up to our door. A doctor came into the room. "Museum!" he said, and then smiled at us. "Come quickly, it's Maggie, she's awake for real this time!"


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter Nineteen

**Note from the Author: WHO TOOK MY COOKIES! I **_**NEED **_**my cookies! Oh, there they are. *munch* Sorry 'bout that. My brother stole my cookies…*depressed face*. But some kind reviewer gave me more cookies. *Happy face* *munch munch***

** We are almost to Chapter Twenty. Another milestone to check off, but the story is nowhere near done. I hope you are not tired of it. *looks at reviews* It appears not. Now, before you all get mad, I suppose I should let you read this chapter now. Okay, here:**

Jasper's point of view:

Right before we got to Maggie's room, I was stopped by one of the police officers. "Jasper Bartlett, isn't it? You were in the room during the attack?"

"Yes, sir," I said, scuffing my feet against the floor anxiously. I wanted to get in. Didn't he understand that this was important?

"This won't take long. We got onto the security cameras in this area around the approximate time of the attack, and we have a rather poor image of someone leaving Maggie's room. He did a good job of staying out of full view of the camera. We made it so that none of the doctors were allowed to leave this building at this time. Do you think it is possible that you could help us identify whoever attacked you, as you claimed to recognise him?"

"I didn't recognise him by face. He had done some sort of make-up to make himself look different, I hypothesize. I wouldn't have known him had I just seen him on the street. I'm pretty sure he's a chameleon and blends in depending on what he's trying to do, so I doubt he'll look the same if he comes back. He probably doesn't even look like a doctor anymore."

"How did you recognise him if he was altering his appearance?" the police man asked curiously.

I blushed, knowing that this was going to sound stupid. "I recognised him by his smile. He looked like, like a cat…with a mouse." I shuddered at the memory. "I'm sorry; I don't know how to help you recognise him."

"Thank you anyway…wait, did you say you believe him to be a chameleon criminal?" The policeman's eyes were steely suddenly, as though something had upset him greatly.

"Yes…" I said slowly, instantly afraid and confused.

"Therefore he could still have left the building even after the doctor ban?"

"Yes." I was beginning to catch on to what he was saying. I touched my hand to the symbol on my wrist. _Choose your moves carefully, Jasper. It could be anyone. Remember who to trust and you'll stay safe._

The police officer swore quietly under his breath. "Why does everything we figure out happen a step too late? Just keep your eyes out for anything suspicious. You can go now. We'll work on it."

Whitney and Henry, who had been waiting for me the whole time, came to stand alongside me as I opened the door to Maggie's room.

"Maggie?" I called out softly, praying harder than I had ever before that she hadn't gone back to sleep.

I heard a quiet mumble, and took several large steps over to Maggie's bed. She seemed asleep, but I gave it a shot. "What's that?" I asked gently.

Maggie's eyes flew open in surprise and she started breathing really quickly. "Mags, calm down, it's me," I said, putting my hands on her shoulders to try to calm her down. "It's me, you're okay. Calm down."

Maggie blinked a couple times, staring at me in confusion. Just when I thought my heart was going to shatter, a look of understanding crossed her face, and she smiled a little. "Jasper," she whispered hoarsely.

I nodded, positive that I would cry if I spoke. Henry and Whitney pushed up next to me. Maggie was surprised to see Whitney.

"Whitney? Here?"

"I came when I heard you were missing," Whitney told her. "Don't talk too much. You're still recovering."

"Are you…okay?" Maggie asked. She saw the bruises on my face. "Ow? Hurt?"

"We're fine," Henry said. "There's going to be policemen outside of your door, okay? Someone…one of them broke into your room when you were asleep. The policemen are going to keep you safe. How do you feel?"

"Got hit by train…put together wrong way," she mumbled, trying for a smile.

"I bet," I said. "You're pretty badly messed up." She rolled her eyes a little at me, and I smiled because that was her.

"How'd…you found me?"

"Yeah, we found you." I said, struggling not to shudder at the memory.

Maggie tensed up as though she was in pain. "Are you okay?" Whitney asked. "Does something hurt?"

"No…remembering," she responded, her voice bitter. Her eyes seemed pained. She opened them widely for a second. "Said…they caught you."

"We got out," Whitney told her, trying to calm her down. "Someone helped us get out, and we found you outside. Do you remember him, he gave you his shoes?"

Maggie gave a small nod and winced. "Ow," she mumbled.

"Don't move your head," Henry said. "You have a concussion."

"I know," she responded. "Your parents…told me…"

"You've talked to my parents?"

"Yes…when they called them…to blackmail them…your parents were talking to me…and your mom said I was concussed."

"How long ago was that?"

"I…I don't know…" Maggie said, panicky. "I don't…remember…"

"It's okay," Henry said quickly. "Don't worry about it."

"They caught me…on…Thursday. I woke up in the car…Idiot attacked on Friday…that's when they called…and they took me outside later…"

"Okay. That makes sense," Henry said. "You're getting really pale, Mags."

She was. I took her bandaged hand and squeezed it gently. "Do you want to sleep?" I asked her.

She shook her head stubbornly and winced again. "Just woke up."

"Who's Idiot?" Whitney asked. "You said he attacked?"

"One of them… the mean one…attacked…On Friday," Maggie confirmed.

"What happened?" I asked. My face began to burn with anger.

"I threw up from hitting my head…he pushed me down…in the snow…couldn't breathe…blacked out."

I glanced at Henry from the corner of my eye. He looked as furious as I felt. I tried to keep my voice calm for Maggie's sake. "That's why they have the police. They're not going to touch you ever again."

"They…broke in?"

"Yeah, one did…" I said, a little unwilling to go into the subject with her. I couldn't just push it away, or she would know something was up.

"How did he get in?"

"He was dressed as a doctor. He came in twice."

"Did he…do…anything…?"

"Yes. The first time he switched your medications to poison you, but we caught it so you're okay. That was earlier today. The second time, which was just a couple minutes ago, he came in when I was with you and he tried to suffocate us but I sent out an alert."

Maggie looked horrified. "But it's okay now," I said quickly. "The police are watching out, we're going to be okay!"

A tear ran down the side of Maggie's face. She brushed at it weakly, but was unable to reach it. I wiped it away for her. "Mags, what's wrong?"

"You got hurt," she whispered.

"Not badly," I insisted. I swallowed other words. _Not…not like you did. _

Maggie shook her head, not listening to me. Another tear slipped down her face, and I brushed it away as well. "Doesn't matter," she whispered .She seemed so tired.

"Are you sure you don't want to sleep?"

Maggie didn't get a chance to answer, as her doctor came in. "Museum," he said with a smile. "I'm sorry, but I need to have you leave. Nice to have you with us, Maggie, I just need to run a few tests on you."

I squeezed Maggie's hand and brushed away the last of her tears. "Bye, Maggie. I'll come see you soon."

Henry, Whitney and I walked quickly back to our room and sat down inside. I looked down at my hand, watching Maggie's tears glimmer across my fingers before they slipped down and fell, shining hurting orbs, down to the carpeted floor.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter Twenty

**This chapter opens weirdly. If you don't like it, I'm sorry.**

**Before you devour this chapter, know this: This chapter is from Maggie's point of view, and I wanted to do part of the last chapter through her eyes. It's literally quote for quote (I know, that's kind of boring. This may be a boring chapter). This is probably a filler chapter.**

**We have reached the twenty chapter mark. We will defiantly reach the twenty-five mark if I have my way. And I have realised that once I have twenty one chapters, there will be an actual need for you to use a scrollbar on the chapters list. They thought makes me so excited that my brain simultaneously explodes and implodes. Not exactly a pretty site, but it is defiantly an interesting experience full of bright flashes of colour and loud explosion-like sounds. Ah…it's calming down now. *Lets out big sigh of relief.***

** Reviewers: You are amazing. Especially those of you who read my cookie-crazed rants and comments of exploding heads with a smile on your face nodding **_**Yes, Yes, that's me. Right there, in between the words, that's me right there. No…no, a little more to the right, right between the y and the e, there it is. Ah….been there, done that.*giggles*. **_**You know you've been there.**

** The rant is over! It is done! I have succeeded in talking your ear off in a visual way (Can you tell that my tea had caffeine in it today?) And now for your feature presentation: CHAPTER TWENTY.**

Maggie's point of view:

Waking up in a hospital isn't exactly much fun.

Waking up in a hospital with no memory of how you got there is really not fun.

Waking up in a hospital with no memory of how you got there feeling like you got hit by a truck is _really_ not fun.

Waking up in a hospital with no memory of how you got there feeling like you got hit by a truck and noticing that someone is watching you is enough to freak anyone out.

Unfortunately, life had to hand me the last scenario. Opening my eyes against the bright light, I saw two brown eyes staring down at me. My brain, which was moving very slowly, reminded me that the last people I had been with were trying to kill me, and I began to breathe quickly, panicking.

T o make matters worse, the owners of the eyes reached down and put his hands on my shoulder. "Mags, calm down, it's me." He looked at me desperately. "It's me; you're okay, calm down."

Something inside my head reminded me that the people who were trying to kill me always referred to me by my full name. I began to relax a tiny bit. I felt like I ought to know this boy, and I stared at him in confusion. He began to look like he was going to cry when something began to click together. _Jasper, is it Jasper? _"Jasper," I asked. Making a sound hurt and I struggled not to tear up.

Jasper nodded. He still looked like he was going to cry. I felt a terrific sense of release. I was safe. Jasper was a safe person. Two other people pushed up next to him. I recognised them too; Henry and Whitney. _Isn't Whitney supposed to be in Georgia?_

"Whitney?" I asked, struggling to find the strength to talk. "Here?"

"I came when I heard you were missing. Don't talk too much. You're still recovering."

"Are you…okay?" I asked. My poor grammar was killing me, but it was the best I could do. I looked up at Jasper and saw that his face was a mass of bruises in different stages of healing. "Ow? Hurt?"

"We're fine," Henry answered. "There's going to be policemen outside your door, okay?" _Wait, what? What happened? _"Someone…one of them broke into your room when you were asleep. The policemen are going to keep you safe. How do you feel?"

I felt horrible, but I didn't want to be whiny, so I tried to make a joke about it. "Hit by train…put together wrong way," I tried to smile, but it hurt too much.

"I bet," Jasper said. "You're pretty badly messed up." I rolled my eyes good-naturedly at him, and he smiled. I had forgotten how much I loved his smile.

I decided to try to fill in the gaps in my memory. "How…you found me?"

"Yeah, we found you," Jasper said. He winced a little, seeming to shudder. I tensed up, remembering everything from my stay with my captors.

"What's wrong?" Whitney asked, misreading my sudden tension. "Does something hurt?"

"No…remembering," I said, trying to ignore the flashbacks that I didn't want to see. I remembered something suddenly: Idiot's voice gloating that they had caught them. I opened my eyes widely. "Said…they caught you."

"We got out," Whitney said soothingly. "Someone helped us get out and we found you outside. Do you remember him, he gave you his shoes?"

I remembered him, alright. He was the only one who had spoken kindly to me the whole time. He comforted me when I was going to die. I gave a small nod and winced when a sharp pain hammered into my skull. "Ow…"

"Don't move your head," Henry commanded. "You have a concussion."

"I know. Your parents…told me." I recalled the phone conversation, but it seemed long ago.

"You've talked to my parents?" Henry asked, sounding very surprised.

"Yes…when they called them…to blackmail them…your parents were talking to me…and your mom said I was concussed."

"How long ago was that?" Henry asked curiously.

"I…I don't know…" I felt panic beginning to bubble in my chest. "I don't…remember."

Henry changed paths. "It's okay. Don't worry about it."

Not remembering was not an option for me, so I began to run a timeline. "They caught me…on…Thursday. I woke up in the car…Idiot attacked on Friday…that's when they called…and they took me outside later…"

"Okay. That makes sense. You're getting real pale, Mags," Henry commented.

Jasper took one of my hands and squeezed it. I noticed it was wrapped in bandages from the wrist down. "Do you want to sleep?" he asked me.

I shook my head and winced as it really started to hurt. "Just woke up."

"Who's Idiot?" Whitney asked. "You said he attacked." I groaned internally, not wanting to talk about this.

"One of them…the mean one…attacked on Friday," I said, trying to give as little information as I could.

"What happened?" Jasper asked. His voice sounded hard and angry, and I felt a twinge of fear.

"I threw up from hitting my head…he pushed me down…in the snow…couldn't breathe…blacked out."

Jasper's hand twitched on mine. "That's why they have the police. They're not going to touch you ever again."

"They…broke in?" I asked nervously.

"Yeah…one did," Jasper said, seeming unwilling to say anymore. I hated pushing for information, but it was nessicary.

"How did he get in?"

"He was dressed as a doctor. He came in twice."

_"_Did he…do…anything…?"

"Yes. The first time he switched your medications to poison you, but we caught it so you're okay. That was earlier today. The second time, which was just a couple minutes ago, he came in when I was with you and he tried to suffocate us but I sent out an alert."

My brain ceased to process my thought. All that remained was that I had gotten them hurt.

"But its okay now," Jasper said quickly. "The police are watching out, we're going to be okay!"

A tear began to slide down my cheek. I tried to wipe it away, but I couldn't reach it. Jasper carefully wiped it away for me. "Mags, what's wrong?"

"You got hurt," I whispered. That was enough. They got hurt trying to protect me.

"Not badly," he insisted.

"Doesn't matter," I responded in another whisper, shaking my head despite the pain. Another tear escaped, they were coming quicker. Jasper collected that one too.

"Are you sure you don't want to sleep?" he asked.

Before I could answer, a doctor came in. "Museum," he said, much to my confusion. He smiled. "I'm sorry, but I need to have you leave. Nice to have you with us, Maggie, I just need to run a few tests on you."

Jasper collected the last of my tears and squeezed my hand gently. "Bye, Maggie. I'll come see you soon." The three of them left.

The doctor looked down at me with a smile. "Museum is our safe word. It's how I prove that I am who I say I am and don't mean you any harm."

"Okay," I whispered. That cleared that up at least.

The doctor talked at me the whole time he checked over my vital signs. I was glad for it. I didn't have to respond, but he seemed cheerful as he did it. "Okay, your heartbeat looks pretty steady. Your IV is keeping you hydrated, that's very good. You're awake. That's a good sign in itself. Okay, Maggie. Do you feel the pain yet or are you numb?"

"My head hurts when I move it," I told him. "I can feel a throbbing feeling in my side, and I can feel this," I said, raising my bandaged arm slightly. "My ankle still hurts when I move it. The rest of me is really achy, I'm just not sure where."

"Okay, you're receiving pain correctly." He proceeded to shine a light in my eyes. "Can you count for me?"

"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten," I said. He stopped me after ten.

"Good, good. You're coming along nicely, I'm impressed. I'm going to give you some medication that will make you pretty sleepy, okay? It's important that you rest. I'm going to have Henry and Whitney and Jasper come back. I want them to stay reasonably close to you; it's easier for the police not to have to watch in a lot of different places."

"Will I go to sleep quickly?"

"Reasonably," he said, and called in a nurse. He checked the medication before putting it in my IV, and told the nurse to get Henry, Jasper, and Whitney. The doctor sat down in a chair next to me. "I'm going to stay with you until they arrive. Do you feel it yet?"

"I already felt tired…now just more so…"

"Okay, well, you sound like you're going to be out pretty soon. Oh good, here they are." Jasper and Henry and Whitney were back. "Museum, she's on a medication that is putting her to sleep for awhile, just as a heads up. You're going to have to stay here for a bit, having you together is easier for the police."

"No problem," Henry said. Whitney carefully brushed a few strands of hair out of my face.

"Hey Whitney," I mumbled.

"Hey. How's it going?"

"Very…very tired," I told her. "You okay?"

"Yeah, we're all okay."

"Where'd you go?"

"We have a room here."

"What day is it?" I asked her.

Whitney paused, a bit uncertain.

"Sunday," Jasper said. He squeezed my hand again.

I heard Henry talk a little to the doctor before the doctor left. "Is she awake," Henry asked Jasper.

"I think so," Jasper responded. I opened my eyes a little.

"See you when I wake up?" I asked.

Three voices confirmed it. I couldn't tell them apart, so I spoke to all three at once. "Thank you," I whispered, closing my eyes and sinking back to the blackness.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter Twenty-One

**SOMEONE GAVE ME MILK AND COOKIES! I am a happy camper. And that is good. Campers ought to be happy. Although I am not camping, I'm at home wondering why it's so dang hot!**

**You know what else makes me happy? Reviews do. And I have so many. I have nearly eighty! The one funny thing is no one EVER comments on Chapter Four. What did chapter four do to you? Would you rather Whitney show up out of nowhere? Bam! Whitney arrived! When? I don't know. There's a camera? Says who? It's for rats? Really, why? Who put it there? Chapter Four tells you!**

** Sorry. Milk and cookies make me fight for equal rights to all chapters. But that is okay. For those of my readers whom are feelings pangs of guilt, go eat cookies. It'll make you feel alright again. And if you still feel guilt, go comment on Chapter Four and tell it how much you love it. It'll thank you.**

** For those of you who read my rant-fest last chapter, this is the chapter that will give you a little scroll-thing in order to reach it I think. This makes me giddy with excitement. Or maybe that's the knowledge that school is starting soon making me giddy with terror. Either way, butterflies!**

Jasper's point of view:

If my life was one of those children's books that describe the story through sound effects (man those things get old in my opinion), this is how it would go in those moments in the hospital:

_Click-a click_, said the heels going down the hallway, scraping at the tile as though it angered them.

_Cree-eek, _said the chair as the policeman adjusted his weight.

_Beep; beep _said Maggie's heartbeat, rising up and down on the EKG as she slept.

_Whoosh, whoosh_ said their breathing, in and out to four different rhythms.

_Mumble, mumble, _said voices up and down the hall, talking about something or someone.

_Silence _said Whitney, Henry, and Jasper as they sat frozen stiff in their hospital chairs.

Snowflakes danced down past the windows, covering the world in a blanket of white. Each one zoomed by, leaving before I could try to look at it. I unfocused my eyes a little, allowing every snowflake to float by without me trying to look at it, and only then could I stand watching as each unique crystal shape fell down, spiraling into the endless blackness. My mind trained itself onto the beeping of Maggie's heart, if the beep sounded a fraction of a second too early or late, I began to panic.

I had to envy Henry, sitting with Whitney's hand clasped in his. He was worrying, but he had the person he loved right with him. Maggie was distant, farther away then everyone and anyone, because my mind was here, awake and unharmed, while hers was asleep and broken into an unidentified number of pieces from pure emotional trauma that I couldn't begin to see or heal for her.

Henry startled my by putting on hand on my shoulder and drumming his fingers in a specific pattern over and over running over my shoulder blade.

"What are you doing?" I said. It sounded sharper than I had intended after the silence. "Sorry."

"I was trying something I learned that would anchor you to the world. You looked like you were escaping to somewhere else, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't a good place. What are you thinking about?"

"I'm afraid. Look at a snowflake: it's so individual and delicate and beautiful. It's perfect and then down it drops into the darkness, never to be seen again, gone forever and never coming back. It frightens me, Henry." I looked up at him, searching his eyes for understanding and found it.

"Maggie is going to be fine, Jasper," Henry said, not ceasing his drumming on my shoulder. "She can speak and move a little, it'll just take time for her to be well again."

"We don't know how much damage they might have done to her mind, Henry," Whitney said, catching onto what I was thinking about.

"Oh," Henry said, making a thoughtful face and ceasing his drumming for a split second only. "Well, she's Maggie. She's a fighter, Jasper. If any part has broken, we'll put it back bit by little bit."

I smiled a little. "How long has she slept," I wondered, looking at Maggie.

"Maybe two hours," Henry said. "The doctor told me it would last three or four. It'll be around lunch then, we can maybe try her on some soup."

I stood up, abruptly tired of sitting, and walked over to Maggie. I knew it was way too early to expect her up, but I wanted to check on her. She seemed small, much too small, and very, very fragile. I traced the side of her face very carefully with one finger and accidently bumped one of her many bruises. He let out a cry of pain in her sleep, and my heart squeezed up, choking me. I glanced out the window and saw something that made my blood run cold. A man, dressed all in heavy black clothing, was climbing up the tree near our window. In his hand was a gun.

"Uh, guys," I whispered. "Someone…is trying to get in…with a gun. Both of you get down. Can you send out the alert, Henry?"

"Sure thing, Jasper," Henry said, and began to speak very quietly into a device. I crouched down out of view of the gunman, and could see his shadow beginning to spill over us. I quickly removed Maggie's IV and stood up, scooping her up in my arms as I bent back down. I quickly disconnected the EKG monitor pads from Maggie, ignoring the angry noise it made. Maggie stirred a little, and I prayed I wasn't hurting her by doing this. I didn't really have a choice.

"Whitney, can you get the door open?" Henry hissed, closing down his alert system. Whitney crawled to the door and carefully opened it. The policeman was gone.

"I don't know when they'll be here," Henry hissed. "We got to get out of here." He quickly crawled out of the room and into the hallway. I followed, unable to crawl while holding Maggie. The room seemed to stretch out to twice its length. I could feel my heart pounding all the way up into my throat, and could hear it in my ears. Once out of the room, we stood up. I could feel myself shaking.

"Where should we go?" I hissed. "Our room would be too obvious,

"Somewhere with a lock on the door, and with another room connected so that we can get out of the line of fire," Henry said. We started to head down the hall but were interrupted by several police officers running down the hallway. I pulled Maggie close to me, praying that they were safe police officers. They ran into our room, guns drawn.

"You there," one of them shouted, opening the window. "In the tree, don't move! Remain put."

"You four need to hide," said another. He pulled out a set of keys and unlocked a small cupboard full of supplies. "Hide in that alcove and keep quiet. Don't say anything."

I sat down in the alcove with Henry and Whitney, and we heard the policeman lock the door behind us before walking away. I held Maggie on my lap. She began to stir some more, making small noises. I covered her mouth with my hand. Her eyes snapped open, and she looked around, frightened. I uncovered her mouth and held one finger to my lips. Right after that, shots rang out and I barely bit back a cry of surprise and fear. One shot came in right through the door. I could feel Maggie shaking and I knew in that moment I would die before letting them hurt her again.

Someone walked up to our doorway, and I tightened my hold on Maggie. Whitney and Henry locked hands. The footsteps paused at our door for a second before moving on. I let out a shaky breath and glanced at Henry. My legs were cramped and painful from sitting in such a small space for so long, but I didn't dare stand up. Henry handed me some sort of doctors' jacket, which I spread over Maggie. She was shivering as she was only wearing a thin hospital gown.

Silence pressed upon our eardrums for several seconds before there was a click as someone stuck something into our door handle as though pick locking it. The handle jostled back and forth before the door swung wide open, revealing someone dressed in all black, holding a gun. Henry jumped up and kicked him in the chest, causing him to fall to the ground and drop his gun, which skittered next to me. Maggie grabbed the gun quickly. The man laughed when he saw her.

"Well, hello there, Margaret. Do you remember me?"

Mags trembled, but kept the gun trained on him. I put my hand on her shoulder in support.

"And you three. I had such a horrid time spying on you in the cold and the snow. But you fell for it, the line was never tapped!"

"Be quiet!" Henry hissed with his voice more venomous than I had ever heard it.

Footsteps were coming down the hall, and a policeman poked his head into the room. He went over to the intruder and pulled him up by the collar. He reached over to Maggie. "Can I have the gun, sweetheart?"

Maggie hesitated. "Mags," I said quietly. "Give him the gun." Maggie handed the gun over to him carefully. The intruder broke free from his grasp and bent down, yanking Maggie upright before I could react. He pulled her close to him in a second and put his mouth against her ear for a while; whispering something, before shoving her back down. I caught Maggie and could feel her trembling.

One of the doctors found us and lead the four of us back to Maggie's room, hooking her back up to all the machinery. He left, saying he would get Maggie's normal doctor. Maggie was still shaking.

"Maggie?" I said softly. "Maggie, what did he say?" She shook her head, clutching her side. "Are your ribs okay?" I realised she was clutching the wrong side.

Maggie's doctor came in. "Museum. They found blood in the cupboard, and he had a knife. Is anyone hurt?"

I looked at Maggie, who was still clutching her side. "He was threatening Maggie," I told him.

The doctor pulled her hands away from her side. The wound was a small, shallow, deliberate doctor let out a sigh of relief. "It's not serious." He looked into Maggie's eyes. "Did he say something to you?"

"_Now you're marked for death," _Maggie whispered.


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter Twenty Two

**Over ninety reviews? *faints* *revives***

**I have a scroll bar, I have a scroll bar, and I have a scroll bar finally! And now it's going to get even longer, until everyone is like…oh, so tiring to just get to my chapter! I am so happy! This joy should be illegal! Oh, oh! And I found Chapter Four today, he actually came out of his little depressed corner and told me that someone had reviewed on him and said he was *gasps* important! Thank you! Depressed chapters are SO hard to deal with, what with the 'everyone hates me' line.**

** To answer the somewhat confusing end to that last chapter, here's a short summary: **_**Jasper, Henry, Whitney and Maggie were hiding in a supply closet during an attack on the hospital. Their closet is broken into by the same person they are hiding from (the people who captured Maggie in the earlier chapters). They manage to get his gun away from him, but he manages to slip away from the police and tells Maggie something that no one overhears. It is later found that he possessed a knife and cut Maggie with it in the shape of a small x. It was not a serious wound. Maggie confirmed that when the injury was taking place, their attacker had informed her that she was "marked for death and going to die". **_

__**That last chapter was a little strange, so I figured the summary would help. **

** This is **_**IMPORTANT: **_**In this story, Maggie's mother is dead and Jasper's parents have divorced with his mom leaving the area. That is mentioned in the story, and I thought you ought to know. **

** Threats of bodily harm do not scare me. I have a ninja who lives under my bed to help me.**

** If you actually read this entire note, you are either amazingly patient or very, very bored.**

Whitney's point of view:

"As much as I hate to say this," Maggie's doctor said to Henry, Jasper and I, "I don't think she's safe in the hospital anymore. There are too many people and we can't tell who is safe all the time."

Henry looked anxiously up and down the hallway where we were standing for the third time so far. The doctor had pulled us out of the room because he believed that Maggie had enough on her mind without hearing about every safety concern that involved her. Jasper's dad had come to check on us again, and he had agreed to sit with her for now.

"So what can we do?" Jasper asked. "Is she well enough to go home?"

"I I think so. She's weak from not eating or drinking, but that will take time. I'm going to provide some medications, as I don't think she can keep down solid food yet. At this point, the main thing I'm worried about is her concussion. There could be damage that will not surface for days, maybe weeks from now. I'm going to need to be kept updated on any large changes in her. You'll also need to police to guard your houses; you won't truly be safe until we catch this whole group."

We nodded, and Henry and Jasper went back into the room. The doctor stopped me for a second, searching my face with his eyes. "Whitney?"

I ducked my head, afraid. _He's going to call me out; he's going to say he recognizes me. _ "No, don't. It's okay. I just wanted to ask you something," the doctor continued in a gentle tone.

"Yes?" My heart was beating too quickly, and I felt nauseous. I wondered if I was going to be ill.

"The whole time I've worked with Maggie, I have seen neither Jasper nor Maggie's mom. Both you and Henry are in the area without your parents, I know that. There is a chance Maggie may need help for awhile with tasks that I don't know if she'd be comfortable having her father help with. Is her mother around?"

"Both Jasper and Maggie have lost their mothers," I said. My heart seized up. Jasper's mom had left and Maggie's mom died, as had my father. I had to envy Jasper a little; his mother was alive at least. Granted he never gets to see her, as she moved after the divorce. And Henry of course was miles and miles from his parents. We were all united in that; we each had at least one parent missing in our lives.

"It's only temporary, but I'm going to ask that you…assist Maggie if she needs help in private matters." The doctor looked at me earnestly, and I understood what he was asking of me.

"Of course, I understand. When are we going to send her home?"

Jasper stuck his head out of the door. "Its okay, Henry," he said. "She's right here; she was just talking to the doctor. Whitney! You scared us, we thought you had disappeared! Don't do that!"

"Sorry," I apologized. I came into the room and Mr. Bartlett excused himself, patting Jasper on the shoulder as he left in a vague sort of way. Henry ran up to me and quickly grabbed me in a hug so tight it almost hurt. "I'm sorry," I told him quietly. He let go and smiled at me without saying anything.

The doctor went over and stood right next to Maggie. I followed after. "Maggie? We've decided that in light of what has happened here today, we are going to send you home tomorrow morning. Is that okay with you?" I relaxed a little, glad that he hadn't mentioned the attack in too much detail.

Maggie nodded a little, seeming afraid. "Can I talk to my father?" she asked in a small voice. She sounded like a little girl. My heart wrenched again. Jasper handed me his phone, which I handed to Maggie. Maggie pressed a few buttons quickly and held the phone to her ear.

"Yes, may I speak to Mr. Winnock?"

"Hold on, just one second please." Maggie held the phone at arm's length. Jasper apparently had set it on speakerphone by accident. There was a pause as the person called to someone else.

"Hello?" Maggie's father asked.

"It's," Maggie started before choking up.

There was a pause, and we could hear a quick intake of breath. "Maggie? Is that you?"

"Yes, Daddy," she said with a small smile that looked rather tired to me.

"Thank God Maggie, are you okay? Have you been awake long? Are you healing well?"

"I have to come home tomorrow." The smile fell off of her face. She seemed to freeze up.

"Did something happen?" her father asked, his voice immediately filled with fear. Maggie didn't respond. "Maggie? Did something happen, Maggie? Can you give the phone to Jasper for me?"

"You're on speakerphone," Jasper said, aiming for the phone. "We can all hear you, sir."

"Did something happen?" her father asked again with such intense fear that I stepped back.

"Someone broke into the hospital," Jasper said. "Maggie was their target, he had a gun."

"Is she all right?" The fear was there again, but this time surrounded by intense anger.

"She is, though she's rather distressed by today's events," Maggie's doctor stepped in. "It might be advantageous to discuss what is going to happen in person, Mr. Winnock, for security reasons."

"I understand," her father responded. "I'll come over right away. I'll see you soon, Maggie."

"Bye, Daddy," Maggie said quietly. Jasper turned off his phone and put it in her pocket. I looked into Maggie's eyes and could almost see the memories flying back and forth in her mind.

"Your dad's going to come," I told her, trying to give her something calming to focus on.

Maggie nodded, but glanced at the window as though afraid. "It's not safe at home either."

My stomach growled, and I blushed, ashamed. "I guess we missed breakfast, didn't we?"

Maggie's doctor looked up. "Oh, you did. Don't worry; I'll get it for you. Would you like some soup, Maggie?" Maggie nodded a little before glancing at the window again, obvious fear in her eyes.

The doctor left. Jasper announced his need for some quality time with a toilet, and Henry agreed to accompany him. The boys left, leaving Maggie and I by ourselves. I noticed that Maggie brushed at her hair anxiously every once and awhile. "Do you want me to comb your hair?" I asked her, wondering if its tangles were bothering her. She looked at me in surprise, and nodded.

"_Puzhalsta_," she said in Russian. "Please." I found the comb and combed through Maggie's black hair. It was full of tangles, but eventually I got it to lie smoothly. "_Spasiba," _she said, thanking me. She even managed a small smile, which I returned.

"_Puzhalsta," _I responded, telling her that it was nothing. I was so glad that someone else knew Russian. It eased the tension inside me a little, letting me breath. "Are you feeling alright?"

She paused, considering her response. "Ow," she hissed, putting a hand to her head. "Sorry."

"There's no need to apologize if you're in pain. Here, lie down." I pushed gently on her shoulders, making her lie back down. "Is there anything you want to talk about?" I asked her.

"No. I want the boys to come back. I'm getting nervous." She stopped and looked me in the eyes. "You and Henry are in love, aren't you?" I turned bright red and nodded, and she smiled.

Henry and Jasper came through the door a few seconds later. I took a few deep breaths to remove the blush from my face. "Has the doctor come yet?" Jasper asked. "I'm starving."

"No, he should be here any minute," I told him. Jasper made a sighing sound but smiled

"Here you are," the doctor said, coming into our room. "Museum, and don't worry, I got them myself so they couldn't be contaminated." He handed us four containers of soup again. Inwardly, I groaned. I was getting very tired of the soup, but at least it was warm. I looked at my thermos and took a sip. It reminded me of soup my mom made for us once in the winter when it was very, very cold.

Maggie sat up and stared silently at hers, cupping it between her hands for the warmth. "Drink some, Mags," Jasper said. Maggie tipped a little soup into her mouth, gagged a little, and swallowed.

"Sorry," she said quietly. "Haven't eaten since Thursday, it feels a little weird in my throat."

Jasper tried to laugh with a mouthful of soup and snorted a little, causing us all to laugh. There was a knock at the door, and the doctor answered it. "Hello, Mr. Winnock," the doctor said pleasantly.

"Hello," Maggie's father said. He came through the doorway. "Maggie?"

Maggie set her soup to the side. "Yes, Daddy," her father took several large steps over to her and hugged her tightly. Jasper, Henry and I moved to give them some space.

"Are you okay? Are you doing well? Are you feeling well? Does anything hurt?"

"Dad, its okay, calm down," she said, smiling a little despite her fear. "My head hurts, but it's going to be okay. Are you okay? I haven't seen you since Thursday, is everything at work good?"

"It's fine, don't worry about me. I was so scared when I came home and you weren't there, Maggie. We were trying to think of something we could do to find you. I saw you yesterday when you were asleep; I thought that my heart was splitting into pieces." He turned to the doctor. "What time should I take her home?"

"Sometime in the morning, I'll give you a call. We'll have to still run a few more checks and I'll have to give you a list of what to look for if her concussion was getting worse."

Her father nodded. "Tell me about the break-in that happened earlier today."

"I wasn't in the room, they were." The doctor gestured to me, Jasper, and Henry. Mr. Winnock looked at us.

"Do you mind explaining to me?" Maggie shuddered and buried her face in his shoulder.

"No," Jasper said, "but I wouldn't do it here preferably." Maggie's dad looked down at Maggie.

"I understand. Shall we," he said looking towards the door. Jasper nodded, and they stood up. "I'll be back in a few minutes, Maggie," her dad said. Maggie nodded a little, and I moved to sit down with her.

"Henry, can you come with us?" Jasper asked. Henry agreed, and the three of them left the room. The doctor left a few seconds after to check on another patient. Maggie leaned her head on my shoulder and we watched the snowflakes fall past the window. I thought about the winters in Russia, which lead to thinking about my father and the life he never told me about. It lead to Henry and my fears that something would happen to him the way it had happened to Daddy. I thought about Jasper's fear that he expressed by describing the snowflakes. I thought about Maggie's eyes lighting up when she saw him. I took Maggie's hand and squeezed it as we waited for our boys to return.


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter Twenty Three

***Twitches* I have over one hundred reviews? That's...amazing. And people are on a "Update this story soon please" rampage and I…wow. I have joy and much of it! **

** I was given a lot of milk and cookies. I have no chapters to fight for the rights of this time, as each and every one of them has received at least one review much to my relief. No more depressed chapters! I am happy. So here is one thing I will say: Thank you for not flaming this story. I recently read a story where someone commented rather angrily as they didn't like who ended up with whom. I know some of you out there probably don't agree with everything I choose to do, but thank you for respecting me enough as an author not to attack my writing. Thanks everyone!**

** Just as a reminder, as I haven't said either of these things in awhile: I do not own Unnatural History or any of the characters shown/mentioned in the show. Also, if you do not have an account, my "Anonymous Review" is on, so you can review on this story. I appreciate your reviews so much!**

Jasper's point of view:

People make plans.

Then they crash.

I mean, really, what is the point? Mr. Winnock, Henry, Maggie's doctor, and I had created a nearly infallible plan. Maggie was to stay in the hospital just one more night and we would move her home tomorrow morning. The doctor even had Maggie's pills made up, and Mr. Winnock had them safely in his hand, ready for her. Everything looked to be working perfectly, and I was happy that we wouldn't have to stay in the hospital any more. Then we tried to get back into Maggie's hospital room, only to find more policemen sitting outside her door. "What's going on?" Henry demanded.

"We just got a call-in from the station. That lunatic we caught earlier? Apparently he's confessed that they have a plan and they're planning to break in sometime tonight. He says that they are switching but doesn't wish to elaborate on what is planned." The policeman looked up at us. "If I were you, I'd stay real close. I wouldn't let you in, but I've been watching you the whole time and I know you're safe."

I nodded and shoved the door open quickly, hearing our plans crash and burn inside my mind. I let out a sigh of relief as I stepped into the room. Everything was the way we had left it. Whitney and Maggie turned around to look at me. I met Maggie's eyes and my heart started doing a weird dance in my chest. _Bump-bump bump-bump. In-love, with-her, _my heart kept reminding me of my feelings.

"Something is happening," Whitney said in a statement rather than a question.

Mr. Winnock and the doctor came in a couple seconds afterwards with Henry. Henry stood next to me, seeming tense. "Maggie," her doctor said. "We have to send you home now, Maggie."

"What's happening?" she asked. I noticed that her eyes were wide and frightened, and my heart ached. I sat down next to her and wrapped my arms around her, and she leaned against me.

"We got a call saying you might be in danger if you stay here," her dad said gently. "It's safer just to take you home. The police will keep an eye on our house there. I brought you some clothing."

The doctor ran a few quick checks over Maggie's vital signs and said that she seemed to be doing well. He, Mr. Winnock, Henry and I left the room to allow Whitney to help Maggie to dress in private. "Now," the doctor said. "Mr. Winnock, I understand that the pressures of your work make it difficult for you to be home a lot. Mr. Bartlett and I were speaking earlier today, and we decided in light of all that has happened today, Henry, Jasper, Whitney and Maggie are all in danger. We would like to have police watching over them as much as possible until this group of people is caught. We were wondering if you would be okay with having them stay at the same house. This means that Jasper, Henry and Whitney would stay with Maggie at your house some nights, and Maggie would stay at Mr. Bartlett's house with them at some other nights."

"Of course, that's fine with me," Mr. Winnock said. "It would be easier to keep an eye on them."

"Precisely, I'm glad you understand. The other problem we have is, as you all know, Maggie suffered a large concussion caused by multiple blows to the head. The unfortunate thing about concussions is that they might not show signs of damage for long periods of time. I want you to keep an eye on Maggie and notify me if she has any massive changes. I need you to tell me if her sleep is changing. It's normal for her to be very tired for awhile, but if she seems to be sleeping at different times or having disturbances. Behavioral differences are also a clue-in that something is wrong."

I nodded. I wanted to go back in the room, but I also knew that Maggie needed privacy. After awhile, we heard a thump sound and Whitney called Maggie's name. "Is everything okay?" I called.

"No, it's not," Whitney called back. "Maggie…she passed out. You can come in, she's dressed."

I rushed back in and quickly picked Maggie up. I cradled her close to me and tapped the side of her face lightly. "Mags, you awake? Can you hear me?" I looked at Whitney. "What happened?"

"We were doing fine, we were just about to call you so you could come back in and she told me that she was dizzy and she just collapsed!" Whitney said, obviously distressed. The doctor came over to where I was and carefully felt for Maggie's pulse in her wrist. He let out sigh of relief.

"She's fine, she's just not used to standing up," he told us. "Here, let's start our way down, can you carry her, Jasper?"

"Of course," I said, continuing to tap Maggie lightly. "Mags come on, please." We made our way into the elevator, where the same old man as before was waiting. He looked us over.

"At least they're fully dressed this time, shirts, shoes, pants, socks…," he muttered to himself before getting off on the second floor. I looked at Henry and raised my eyebrows. He raised his in response, and we decided to ignore the comments. The elevator seemed to be going too slowly for me.

When we finally got to the bottom the doctor told us that he had to go. "Remember to alert me if something changes," he reminded us over his shoulder. Mr. Winnock left to get the car into the pick-up lane. Maggie shifted a little in my arms and blinked her eyes open. She looked at me as though confused for a second before sitting bolt upright, more or less on my lap. "What happened?"

"You weren't used to standing up and you fainted," I told her. She bit her lip and leaned her face onto her hands. "What's the matter?"

"I'm so sorry," she apologized.

"Why?" Whitney asked. "Maggie, in the last four days you've been kidnapped, beaten, nearly suffocated _twice_, suffered a severe concussion, suffered hypothermia, suffered severe dehydration, and been poisoned. The fact that you're awake is incredible." She pushed Maggie's hands away from her face so that she could see her. "It's okay." She continued with something gentle-sounding in Russian that made Maggie smile.

Henry reached out and quickly tapped me on the shoulder. I looked at him, and he gestured to Mr. Winnock, who was waiting in his car in the pickup lane. "Maggie," he said. "You're Dad's ready; he's in the pickup lane. Let's get you home."

I picked Maggie up and we walked to the car. Henry sat in the shotgun seat with Mr. Winnock, while Maggie sat between Whitney and I. Maggie leaned against my shoulder, not saying anything for a long time. "Are you tired?"I whispered, noticing an odd look in her eyes.

"My head hurts."

Something in my heart wrenched and ached again. "Are you dizzy still?"

"Not as much, but yeah."

"I'll give you some pain medication once we are home, it'll stop your head from hurting," her father said. He looked at her in the mirror and smiled. "Are you hungry?"

"A…a little, but eating made me feel sick," she admitted.

The car pulled in, and I realised that we were at the house. I climbed out of the car and carried Maggie into the house. She looked around and shuddered, her brown eyes becoming huge with terror. "Turn on the lights, please. Please," she begged, trying not to cry. I turned the lights on quickly.

"Mags, Mags, its okay." I set her down so that she was sitting on the island of her kitchen and sat down next to her. Her dad gave her some pain medication, which she swallowed.

"It'll make her sleepy," Henry said, reading the label. Maggie made an angry noise.

"I don't want to sleep," she insisted. "I've done nothing but sleep for days."

"You weren't sleeping. You were unconscious," Henry insisted. "It's a world of difference."

Whitney found the tea kettle. "Do you want some tea?" she asked. Mr. Winnock declined, saying he was going to set up our beds, but Henry, Maggie and I agreed. Whitney made us some tea, and Maggie took a cup, shivering. "It's cold, isn't it," Whitney said, shivering herself.

"It is," Mr. Winnock agreed, coming back. "There's something wrong with the heating, I recommend you get into your beds. Whitney, I put you on the floor of Maggie's room. Jasper, you and Henry can sleep downstairs in the living room."

"Thank you, sir," I said. I turned to head off to bed, but quickly swirled back around. "Goodnight, Mags," I said, hugging her quickly. I could hear my heart again, reminding me. _Bump, bump. Bump, bump. Mag-gie, Mag-gie._


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter Twenty-Four

**I'm so sorry for the delay on this chapter! I'm having a massive case of Writer's Block right now and it is not helping me in the least. I think I've gotten rid of it though, reviews and messages are very important in the recovery process, as I'm sure you all know. Thank you to everyone who is still paying attention to my story, I think I finally got passed the block and should be putting chapters up more regularly now!**

Henry's point of view:

I don't like this. I don't. Not one bit.

Even if I understand it, I don't have to like it.

I know why we're here, at Maggie's house, when we could be at some sort of safe house. I know that we're here to be used as bait, to try to draw those criminals out of their hiding place so that they could be caught and their shadows would stop haunting us. I know that there are policemen around the perimeter of the house. I know that Mr. Winnock had his friends at work devise several plans on what to do in an emergency, and I know that they are trained to get us to safety if anything were to happen as part of this cat-and-mouse game. I know that FBI has monitoring equipment all around the house, making sure no one can get near it without being seen and monitored. I know that this house is virtually impenetrable now. I know that we're supposedly safe.

But I still don't like it. Something doesn't seem right about all of this, and I'm not one to misjudge my intuition. But what could I do? _Relax, Henry_, I reasoned with myself. _Nothing is going to happen. Just go to sleep and it will be morning before you know it_

_I would if I could, _I retorted angrily, snapping at my own mine like a lunatic. Rolling over in my sleeping bag, I struggled to get comfortable. _I miss my hammock, this is so uncomfortable. How on earth does Jasper sleep in this thing, I feel like I'm being eaten alive by some sort of oversized caterpillar. _I kicked myself out of the sleeping bag and sat up in the cold winter air. The four of us had decided to sleep in our clothes, as it was really cold. I didn't mind the chill too terribly much, so I stood up and walked over to the window. I could see the shapes of policemen all over the place. One noticed me and smiled, making an odd gesture with his thumb stuck in the air. Jasper told me it was an 'all's good' symbol, so I made it back. I went back over to my sleeping bag and began to meditate to calm myself. I didn't get very far in before I heard something. I held very still, listening. I could hear four sets of breathing besides my own, three breathing in and out calmly and one coming quickly and raggedly. My danger radar went off at full tilt, sending spikes of adrenaline through me. I couldn't pinpoint whose it was, yet. "Jasper," I hissed, shaking him through the stupid sleeping bag. "Jasper, wake up."

"Henry, what are you doing?" Jasper asked sleepily. "What's wrong? Its night, why are we up?"

"I hear something," I hissed, still listening. "Be quiet, I'm trying to figure it out."

"What sort of something?" Jasper demanded, fully awake now.

"Really quick breathing, it's coming…" I paused, straining. "It's coming from the girl's room."

Jasper began to desperately untangle himself from his sleeping bag. We got to the stairs and began to climb them quietly. The breathing sound stopped for a second and switched into a full-on scream. I heard a bang as Mr. Winnock jumped out of bed, but Jasper and I reached the door first and flung it open. Whitney was kneeling next to Maggie's bed trying to shake Maggie awake from what looked to be a horrible nightmare. Mr. Winnock rushed into the room and got over to Maggie' bed and picked her up. "This always works," he told us and began to walk around the room. Maggie quieted down and began to sleep normally again. "There. Haven't had to do that since… her mother passed away," his eyes began to fill with tears as he put Maggie in bed. "I'm sorry. You can go back to bed now."

Jasper and I went back downstairs. He climbed back into his sleeping bag. I eyed mine with distaste but climbed into it, reminding myself continuously that I was not being eaten alive.

When I woke in the morning, I had an odd moment where I couldn't remember exactly why I was where I was. Then I remembered and climbed out of my sleeping bag. It was whiter than white outside, and I had to cover my eyes. More snow. I heard Mr. Winnock come down to make breakfast.

"All right, Henry?" he asked, seeing me awake.

"Yes, sir, I'm fine." He was dressed in his uniform, and I wondered if I should salute him.

"An early riser?" he asked in a familiar-enough tone. I decided against the saluting.

"Yes." I went into the kitchen and leaned against the counter. "Are you heading to work today? It's only four days until Christmas, don't you get Christmas off?"

"I do. I have to work today and tomorrow but that's it." He began making breakfast.

"Can I help?" He nodded, somewhat distractedly. I began making pancakes.

Jasper came in eventually, soon followed by Whitney and Maggie, who was still limping slightly on her ankle. She was holding her head again. _Another headache, _I sighed internally and found her medication. _I really hope we aren't over-using this. _"Here you go, Mags," I said, handing her the bottle.

"Thanks, Henry. Sorry about the nightmare last night, everyone," she said, swallowing the pills.

"Don't worry about it. You're ankle seems better," Jasper commented, changing the subject.

"Oh, yeah, it's barely swollen anymore. I took the bandage off last night."

"How many bandages do you still have?" Jasper asked. His sharp anger was masked under curiosity. I put my hand on his shoulder quickly and tapped it in the calming pattern I had learned.

Maggie glanced between us in confusion, narrowing her eyes to 'observe' as she was so fond of doing. "Only two, this one," she said, gesturing to the white bandages that wrapped from her wrist to her elbow, "and the one around my ribcage. I'll have that last one for awhile."

"Speaking of bandages, we have to change them after breakfast," her father said, setting plates in front of Jasper, Whitney and I. "I have to head out now." He set down a last bowl and went to leave.

"Aren't you supposed to be at work already, Dad?" Maggie asked.

"Yes, but they're letting me come in a little later to make sure that you're all settled." He had given her 'oatmeal' because her stomach was not working well. _Oatmeal, what a name,_ I had to stifle a laugh at the weirdness of it all, earning a weird look from Jasper. Oat-mush would be better, I decided.

"Let the police know if anything funny happens," he commanded, leaving. I nodded in agreement, still stifling laughter. I high-pitched burst pushed through my lips.

"Okay, I give," Whitney said over the sound of Mr. Winnock leaving in his car. "What the heck are you laughing about, Henry? You look like your combusting inside."

"Oatmeal, it's a weird name," I laughed again. "I've never heard it before."

Jasper stared at me before smiling. "You know, the name makes sense, but it is a little weird."

Maggie let out a good-natured sigh and put her head down in her arms, oatmeal untouched. "Please stop laughing about my food," she said, trying not to laugh as well.

"Okay, okay," I agreed, stuffing one last laugh down into my stomach where it couldn't bubble out from. It felt so good to laugh. There was silence for a few seconds. Maggie kept her head down on her arms. The smile fell off of Jasper's face and he touched her shoulder gently.

"Hey, Mags, you okay?"

"I don't feel so well. I'm going to go lie down. I want to sleep."

"You haven't eaten anything," I objected.

"I'll eat later." She stood up unsteadily. "Wake me up in a few hours, okay?" She climbed upstairs unsteadily, and I heard her settle herself into bed.

We spent the next few hours in quiet, not wanting to disturb Maggie by accident. Whitney and Jasper tried to show me something they said was called 'Youtube' but I didn't manage to learn. Computers, I just can't figure those things out.

"Should I go get Maggie," Jasper asked. I glanced at the clock. She had been in her room for two hours. I gave him a nod, so he climbed up the stairs. He came down soon after, Maggie using his shoulder as support. Maggie gave us a smile.

It was vacant and false and didn't meet her eyes. I looked at Whitney to see if she had noticed. She hadn't, neither had Jasper. I wondered if I had imagined it for a second. My natural curiosity got the better of me. I was going to find out. "Hey, Mags," I said in a cheerful tone. "Want your oatmeal? I'll heat it."

"Sure, Henry," she saw me headed to the kitchen and followed me. "I'm not sure I trust you with the microwave." She smiled again. Fake. Even in the hospital her smiles were real through the pain.

"Sure, sure," I agreed, pretending I hadn't saw through her. I put the bowl in the microwave. "Are you doing alright?" I asked, trying to sound nonchalant.

"Of course," she said. I could hear it in her voice now. She was lying.

"You sure," I demanded.

"Henry," she said with her voice nearly in a warning tone. "I'm fine. My head just hurts." She retrieved her oatmeal. "Thank you," she said, smiling too hard. "I'll eat this in the living room."

"No problem." I watched her leave the kitchen and sat down on the counter, putting my head in my hands. Jasper came in and put his hand on my shoulder.

"Everything alright," he asked me, like a delayed echo of myself.

I paused for a second, wondering if I should tell him. He looked worn out. No. I wouldn't tell him. Or Whitney, not until I knew for sure if something was up.

"Of course, I'm fine. I'm tired."

Jasper nodded and left the room. I breathed in my own lie as it hung in the air. It burned my mouth and throat as it slid into my stomach. _Sorry, Jasper. I'll tell you when I can._


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter Twenty-Five

**Thank you, loving and kind reviewers! I appreciate you all! **

** I got a chapter up quickly! I hope you are all very happy! Unfortunately, this is a short chapter. It's a little tricky to follow, so PM me any questions that you have, and I'll answer them. Thanks!**

**This chapter is weird. Just a heads-up, know that all the weirdness is inside Maggie's head.**

**Important fact about this chapter (notice it is not italicized and underlined, making it important, but not tremendously so): This chapter starts while Maggie is upstairs when she went to sleep during breakfast. I just wanted to make sure that was nice and cleared up so that my readers did not have giant question marks floating over their heads. Although that would be funny, (laughs quietly). Here you go, chapter twenty-five!**

Maggie's point of view:

One minute, Henry was laughing at my oatmeal. I was trying not to laugh, but was about to let a burst go. Then, much to my shock, something changed. An invisible wall shot up between me and everyone else. I knew it wasn't there. I knew that it wasn't real. But somehow, it kept the emotion from reaching me. I couldn't laugh. I was distanced. Separated, and I was frightened. "Please stop laughing about my food," I pleaded. I tried to sound happy. I hated this. It was frightening.

"Okay, okay," Henry agreed. They stopped, much to my relief. I was afraid to lift up my head. The fear was the only thing I could feel. Their happiness was distanced. Something in me wanted to scream, but I held it back. I kept my head down for a bit, before feeling someone touch my shoulder.

"Hey, Mags, you okay?" Jasper asked. A lot of thoughts ran through my mind. _Not Jasper. Please, Jasper, don't. I love you. I know I do. I just can't feel it anymore. You're so far away, do you know that? I can feel you, but you're beyond the wall. I don't know what's happening._

Of course, I couldn't say that. They'd know I was losing my mind then. So I lied. "I don't feel so well. I'm going to lie down. I want to sleep." I had to get away from there. I was going to go insane.

"You haven't eaten anything," Henry objected. _Henry, please. Let me go. Please. Help. Me._

"I'll eat later," I promised. I stood from the table and swayed a little. Regaining my balance, I climbed the stairs before anyone could follow me, eventually making it to my room. I sat down on my bed and put my head between my knees despite the ache. _Snap out of it, snap out of it. You're okay. Just calm down, maybe it's the medication that's doing this. Yeah. Sure. Ha. Good one._

I pulled my head back up and lay down on my bed, trying to think. I thought of Jasper. Deep down, in my memories, I knew that I loved him. But I couldn't feel it. It was though a shield had been made between me and everyone else. Their happiness could not get to me. And my feelings couldn't come out. I couldn't feel anything except pain and fear.

I wondered if I should tell them that I was crazy. I couldn't do it. I couldn't admit that I was losing my mind. _Just wait, it'll go away. It has to. If it doesn't, I'll tell them. I will. Really, I will. _

Rolling onto my uninjured side, I closed my eyes, praying for sleep. Downstairs I could hear quiet laughter, and I began to cry, much to my disgust. Brushing the tears out of my eyes, I covered my ears with my hands so that I couldn't hear the laughter that represented the joy that I could no longer experience. _Go to sleep, go to sleep, please, please, please Maggie, please, please. Just go to sleep._

I awoke awhile later. Grabbing a piece of paper and a pencil, I began to write.

_December 21_

_ Today I realised I'm losing my mind. I can't feel anything. Something is going wrong in my head. I know I love him, but I can't feel the love anymore. I can feel pain and fear. I'm going to go even crazier if this doesn't stop. I feel like I'm going to break into little pieces. I'm not going to tell anyone yet. I've been nothing but a worry lately. I'm going to wait awhile and see if this stops. I'll tell them if it doesn't. _

I heard footsteps coming up the stairs, and I shoved the piece of paper between my mattress and my headboard. I faced away from the door, lying down as though I was asleep.

"Maggie?" Jasper asked, opening my door. "You said we should wake you up after awhile?" He came over to me and tapped me gently.

"Mmm?" I mumbled, giving the impression that I was asleep. Another lie, I hated it.

"You said to wake you up?" He sounded concerned. I felt horrible.

"Oh, yes, thank you, Jasper." I smiled a fake smile at him, praying he wouldn't notice. He gave me a genuine smile back. Something stabbed at my heart, and I winced.

"Your head," he asked. Why did he have to be so darn perceptive?

"What? Oh, yeah. It's sore. Let's go downstairs." I hated the lie. Lies, I had told too many today.

Jasper let me use his shoulder for support when I was coming down the stairs. I saw Henry and Whitney looking at me, and I gave them another of my lovely fake smiles. Whitney smiled back at me, but Henry gave me an odd look. _Oh no. Please, Henry. Stay out of this. I can't keep lying. _

"Hey, Mags," he said, sounding cheerful and happy. "Want your oatmeal? I'll heat it."

That was sweet of him. "Sure, Henry," I agreed. He headed to the kitchen. I decided to follow him. "I'm not sure I trust you with the microwave," I added, smiling another of my fake smiles.

He smiled back, but it seemed a little strained. "Sure, sure," He agreed as we got to the kitchen. He stuck my oatmeal in the microwave and set the time for it. "Are you doing alright?" he asked.

"Of course," I said. My voice shook a little, and I winced. Great, just great, now he'll know.

"You sure," he demanded, looking at me in the very intense way he had.

"Henry," I said. "I'm fine, my head just hurts." I got my oatmeal. "Thanks, I'll eat this in the living room," I told him, desperate to get away.

"No problem," he said. I escaped out of the room and sat on the couch. Jasper headed into the kitchen, and soon returned. I ate my oatmeal in small bites. No one could make me talk if I was eating.

"Is Henry okay?" Whitney asked Jasper. I stiffened a little. Had Henry told Jasper? Would he tell Whitney? I choked a little on my oatmeal, and Whitney thumped me on the back, still waiting for Jasper's response.

"Yeah, he said he's just tired. He didn't sleep well last night; I don't think he likes sleeping bags."

Whitney laughed at that, and I gave a weak smile. He hadn't told Jasper. He had lied, just the way I had.

Glancing at the door, I wondered if I could run somewhere and escape from this.

I shook my head a little.

_No._

_ Just face it, you're insane._

_ Maybe I should tell them._

_ No, I shouldn't. There is no running._

_ No running from these lies._


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter Twenty-Six

**Dear readers, reviewers, and people who have no idea why they are seeing this page: I have been diagnosed with Overexcited Author Syndrome (OAS for short). And beware, you may have it too. OAS shows many symptoms, including: Freaking out over every little review, updating more than three times a week, feeling depressed when you don't get reviews, and dreaming about your story at night. There is NO CURE but writing until you are almost dead with exhaustion and your hands feel horrible. If you tire yourself out, you will have cured yourself. Beware and spread the word!**

** Maggie might seem a little out of character here. Her choices aren't supposed to make sense. **

**Okay, after that public service announcement and little note….CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX.**

Maggie's point of view:

_ December 21: The last time I wrote, it was morning. Now it's evening. We just ate dinner. _

_I'm now sure that I'm losing my mind. Sometimes I'm fine. I can feel everything. I can laugh and actually mean it. Other times, I feel completely separated. I spat my medication out today when they weren't looking. I want my head to hurt. Things are more real when it does. I want to be real._

_ Henry's been watching me way too closely today. I'm almost used to the 'eyes watching you from behind feeling.' Someone's coming up the stairs. It's probably Henry again. Please, Henry. Stop._

I stuffed the papers into their hiding space. There was a knock on my door. "Come in," I called.

I was wrong. It was Whitney. She sat down next to me on my bed. "Are you doing alright?"

"Yes," I lied. _I'm sorry, Whitney. I'm sorry for lying. I'm crazy. I'm going crazy._

"Do you need anything for your head?" she asked. I noticed that I was rubbing my head.

"No, I'm fine," I insisted. I'm not exactly fond of spitting pills out when no one was looking.

Whitney gave me a worried look. "You seem really odd lately." Not her too!

I smiled at her. "Don't worry, I'm okay. I'm just still really tired." That, at least, was the truth.

"Oh, I get it. We were thinking about watching a movie. Do you want to watch it with us?"

"Sure," I agreed. It would be nice not to have to think. I went downstairs. I remembered the commercials starting, and Jasper giving Henry a lecture on how to use the remote, and then promptly woke up in my bed with a horrible headache. Whitney was sitting next to me on my bed.

"You okay? You were making a weird noise," she said, eyeing me with concern again.

"Yeah, I'm okay. Sorry for disturbing you," I apologized, feelings worried. Would she notice?

"Don't worry about it. Your dad left early today. Henry's making breakfast."

"Okay." I attempted to stifle a cry of pain as my head began to hurt even worse. I didn't succeed, and it came out through my nose. "I'm okay," I told Whitney, who was giving me a look.

"No, you're not okay," Whitney said. I tried to sit up, but she pushed me back down. "I'm getting your medication, you stay here." She came back with my medications. "Is it your head?"

I nodded, and she handed me some medication and some of my pain killers, which I pretended to swallow as I held it under my tongue. As she went back downstairs to put my bottle of pills back, I spat my medication and pain killers into a tissue and tossed the tissue into the trashcan. _I hate this. _

The whole day was a blur in recollection. I couldn't remember most of what happened. One minute I was eating breakfast, and the next moment we were sitting in the living room, the clock showing several hours had passed. I found more notes that I didn't remember writing.

_December 22, I can't remember the movie from last night. Now I'm losing my memory. It's currently 9:00 in the morning. I'm going downstairs to breakfast soon. I'm not taking any of the medication anymore, not even the pain killers. Henry came to check on me. He knows, I think._

_ December 22: It's now 2:00 in the afternoon. I don't remember anything past breakfast, and that's blurry. I think I ate cereal. If I ask, they'll notice. I still don't remember the movie._

_ December 21: It's now four in the afternoon. I don't remember writing the last note. I'm starting to feel really sick. I threw up awhile ago. Not very much, and I didn't tell them because I forgot. Did I throw up? I can't remember anymore. Everything is becoming very blurry, but at least I'm feeling things again. I want to feel things. I don't want this. I feel so messed up and I'm scared_

Reading through the notes, I felt a level of nausea.Instead of feeling annoyed and revolted like I normally would, I felt only panic. _Is something really wrong with me?_

_ 4:15 in the afternoon. I'm going to throw up. I'm getting scared that I'm really sick._

_ 4:20 in the afternoon. I threw up. No one noticed. I turned the fan on so they couldn't hear me. Henry is giving me That Look again lately, and I think he's going to find out I'm sick soon._

I sat down on my bed, trying to calm down. I felt warm. Way too warm. I opened up a window just a crack, enjoying the cold air that was coming through. I gathered some snow from my window sill and on a whim rubbed it over my face to try to cool down. My hands felt numb from the cold of the snow. The burning I had been feeling suddenly changed to feeling as though I was freezing.

A suspicion formed in my head. I stood up and walked to the bathroom, picking up the thermometer. I stared at it for a second before sitting down, wondering if I was going to be sick.

"What are you doing?" Henry asked, sounding concerned. He was right behind me.

I turned around, startled and dropping the thermometer. "Henry! You scared me!"

"Maggie. You're sick." He crouched down next to me. He had the papers in his hand.

"What?" I couldn't hear right. I felt sicker than earlier. I began to shiver.

"I found the papers in your room. You left them out." He looked at me seriously. "You're sick."

"I don't know. I think I'm insane." I began to cry, immediately disgusted with myself.

"You're not. I think it's your concussion." He took the thermometer. "Why were you using this?"

I didn't answer, choosing instead to put my head on my knees. "Mags, are you alright? This is a thermometer isn't it? What do you do with thermometers again? Jasper," he shouted louder, making my head throb suddenly. "What do you do with thermometers?"

Jasper came running upstairs, Whitney following. "What?" I assume he saw me, because he began to panic. "Mags, what's going on?" He touched my forehead carefully. "Henry, give me that."

"Why?"

"Henry, she's running a fever. Give it to me!" he demanded. "Maggie," he pushed my head up out of my arms and pushed the thermometer into my mouth. "Henry, what on earth is going on?"

"I found some notes she's been writing to herself. She's been feeling weird since yesterday at breakfast, like she had no emotions. I knew something was weird, I just couldn't tell what was wrong. She kept saying she was fine. Apparently, she stopped taking her medication so that she could feel things and now she's losing her memory. I came in here and she was sitting down. She's also been throwing up." I put my head back into my arms. Their voices were making my head hurt worse.

"But I gave her medication this morning," Whitney said. My stomach twisted with guilt.

"She waited until you were gone," Henry started, a worried sound starting in his voice.

"And spat them out," Whitney finished, understanding. "Maggie," she groaned. "Why?"

"She said she had been nothing but a bother," Henry finished, summing up my last two days.

The thermometer beeped and Jasper took it out of my mouth. "Okay, yeah, she has a fever."

"Oh, no, I thought so. How high," Henry asked as though he didn't want the answer.

"A hundred and two degrees," Jasper said. Even I was surprised. _I'm really that sick? Oh…that explains everything_. "Henry, didn't her doctor give you his number? Call him, please."

Henry ran downstairs. Jasper picked me up and held me so that I was leaning against him. "Maggie, you idiot," he said, sounding like he was going to cry. "What on EARTH were you thinking?"

"Sorry, Jasper," I mumbled, hoping he understood. "I thought I was crazy. I'm sorry."

"Shh…you thought you were a bother?" he demanded, suddenly remembering something.

"I was making everyone worried. Ow, ow," My head seemed to be splitting open.

"Maggie…you're not too much of a bother. Never, ever do something like this to yourself again. Maggie…I…" Henry came barreling back up the stairs, the phone clutched to his face. Jasper stopped.

"What exactly do I need to tell them?" he asked.

Jasper took the phone. "Yes, this is Jasper. Yeah, she's sick. She seemed to not…be feeling emotions, and she stopped taking her medication because she felt like she could feel things easier that way. Now she's running a high fever and…wait, I'll ask. Are you hearing and seeing things correctly?"

I looked at him. "What?"

"Okay, she can't understand what I'm saying. What? Yeah, I'll put you on." He hit the speakerphone button. "Yes, you're on speakerphone now."

"Maggie?"

I didn't say anything. Couldn't they be quiet? It hurt. My whole head hurt. I put my hands to the side of my head and began to shake. Jasper pulled me tighter against him and I went to sleep.

"Mags! Mags! Mags wake up! Please!" Jasper said, shaking me. "You're dad is home. He brought your new medication home." He shook me harder, and my eyes flew open. _When did we get to my room?_

"Stop, you'll make me throw up," I said.

"Sorry. We figured out why you're sick. You weren't taking the medication that was supposed to keep up your immune system. Here, we got you some new medication." He made me take the medication, and I swallowed. "Apparently it'll make you act really weird, though."

My head was spinning already. "I feel like those 'drunken' goggles," I complained. "Remind me to never drink."

"Gotcha."

"I'm sorry for being stupid about my medication."

"Don't do it again. You scared me."

"What time is it?"

"Nearly ten."

"I slept too long."

"It's okay."

"I'm tired again."

"Sleep then."

"Don't go."

I realised I was lying next to him. I could feel him smile. "I won't. Night Mags."


	27. Chapter 27

Chapter Twenty-Seven

** I have officially been diagnosed with OAS (overexcited author syndrome, see last chapter if you've forgotten). Most of you are probably pleased. Yes, I will be updating more. No, you are not allowed to put stuff in my food that will keep me in a permanent state of OAS. (I would DIE!)**

** But sooner or later, my OAS syndrome will have run its course and I will slow down. And when I'm not updating so fast, for any of you who are bored, I recommend the following Unnatural History stories (these are the ones I've been reading lately): Omnipotent, The Anthropologist's Son, Show Me How to Lie, Phantom of Smithsonian, and Julius or Juliet? Capulet or Caesar? These are just a few of the amazing stories, and I will put some more recommendations up later as time goes on so that this authors note doesn't turn into a novel. That would be funny: Author notes of Dripping Seconds.**

** Thanks for reading this note, and have fun reading this next chapter. Off you go!**

Whitney's point of view (we haven't had that in awhile, huh?):

Even with my worry for Maggie and my guilt for not noticing her illness sooner, I could still manage to find a laugh for watching Henry attempt to get on his webcam by himself. Jasper was staying with Maggie upstairs, so Henry was trying to remember what buttons Jasper had pressed.

"And…there!" he said excitedly. "I did it, Whitney!" He bounced up and down for a second.

I had to try not to laugh. "Good job," I said, smiling at his joy from my position on the couch. I didn't want to intrude into his family moments, so I was staying out of clear view from the webcam.

"Henry!" his parents said delighted. I remembered that they hadn't seen him since before the kidnapping. Ouch. They must have been worried. "Henry, are you alright? They told us you found her."

"Yes, I'm fine," he said. "And we found Maggie, she's sleeping right now. She's been very sick."

"What do you plan on doing for Christmas," Henry's mom asked, changing to a happier subject.

"Well, lately we've all had to stay together, so I assume Christmas with friends and family."

"Sounds wonderful," his dad said. "I hope the three of you and Uncle B have fun."

"Dad," Henry laughed. "There are four of us." He smiled at me, and I took it as a cue to come over. I crouched next to him to be in view of the camera. "Mom and Dad, meet Whitney."

"Hello, Whitney," his parents said. His mom laughed suddenly. "Henry… is this," she started.

"Yeah, this is Whitney from the Sputnik thing. Except, not really because now we're different now," he said, wrapping his arm around my shoulders. I leaned my head against his shoulder.

"Are you…well, together?" his Dad asked. His mom suddenly smiled at the thought.

"Yes, we're in love," I said, figuring I might as well just be clear about it. I hoped his parents didn't mind, I felt a sudden stirring of panic in my stomach. _What if they don't like me? _I wondered.

His mom was still smiling. "Well, that's excellent. Tell us about you, Whitney," his dad insisted.

_Well, that's a good sign at least. They seem okay with me so far. _"Okay, Mr. Griffin."

"Call us Zafer and Rose," he interrupted. _That's a good sign too. First name basis, that's good._

"Okay. Well, my name is Whitney. I'm Russian. I heard you mention the Sputnik episode, so I assume Henry told you about that. I moved to Georgia recently, but I came back here by myself when I heard that something had happened to Maggie. I'm probably spending Christmas here."

"She speaks Russian," Henry put in. I gave him a look that said 'No, Really'. "Well you said you are Russian, not that you spoke Russian fluently. I wanted them to know for sure. They might."

"Vy govorite po-russki?" I asked, praying that they would say yes, they spoke Russian.

"Ya govoru po-russki," they confirmed. I let a silent cheer in my mind. Someone else spoke it!

Henry looked at me for help, looking confused. "They said they speak Russian," I told him.

"Can we say hello to Jasper?" his mother asked, taking me off the spot-light of attention.

"Yes, give me a minute. He's upstairs." Henry ran upstairs. He came downstairs soon after. Jasper followed. I noticed he was carrying Maggie, who was asleep. I gave him a questioning look.

"I promised I wouldn't leave her by herself," he said under his breath. I smiled and nodded. _That's so sweet,_ I thought to myself. "Hey, Aunt Rose, Uncle Zafer. How's everything?"

"Doing well," Rose said. "Is that your friend Maggie?" she asked, gesturing to Maggie.

"Yes, she's on some weird medication that makes her sound drunk. She's sleeping."

"Is she alright?" Zafer asked. "I was talking to her awhile ago, she didn't sound well."

"She has a really bad concussion and some broken ribs. She's recovering pretty well, she just needs some time." Jasper shifted her carefully. "And a lot of sleep, I have to stay with her. In case she wakes up, she wasn't feeling well awhile ago." He checked her temperature against his hand and nodded. "Do you have any recommendations for concussions?" he asked his aunt and uncle.

They stopped, thinking. "There's not a lot you can do, just a lot of sleep, rest, and patience from all of you, including from her. Has she had behavior changes? Those happen sometimes."

"Yes, she was and as a result stopped taking her medications to try to control them. Consequently, she's rather sick now. I have to keep making sure her fever isn't increasing."

"Poor thing," Rose said sympathetically. "We have to go now, keep in touch! It was nice meeting you, Whitney." We said our goodbyes and Henry shut down the computer.

"Well, Henry. I'm impressed," Jasper admitted. "You set up the webcam by yourself."

"Thanks, Jasper," Henry said, smiling proudly. "I just had to remember what you showed me."

Jasper glanced at the clock. "Danger time doesn't start for an hour or two." He looked at our confused facial expressions. "Danger time is the time that Maggie's medication might make her sick."

"Should we be awake at this point?" Henry asked. Jasper nodded, checking her temperature again against his hand, still carrying her. "That's easy then!" Henry said suddenly, startling me. "We can all just sleep down here for awhile. Maggie's dad had to head to work, Jasper's dads at a meeting, it will only be safer for us to be close to each other. And if anything goes wrong, we'll be right here."

"That sounds like pretty good plan," Jasper agreed, looking really tired. He set Maggie down on the couch gently, checking her temperature yet again. "Should we get ready for bed now?"

"I don't know about you," Henry said, yawning, "but I'm really tired."

"Me too," I admitted, glad that he had said it first. "I'll get my sleeping bag and some of Maggie's blankets. Someone will have to not have a sleeping bag."

"I'll use the blankets, please," Henry volunteered instantly. I gave him a strange look. "Once when I was little I somehow managed to zip myself into one and nearly suffocated myself. I haven't exactly liked them since then. Mom and Dad always let me use a lot of blankets after that."

I laughed a little. "But you slept in one last night." He made a face. "Okay, yes, you can use the blankets if you want." He beamed. I ran upstairs and got the supplies that I needed, dragging them back downstairs and setting them on the floor of the living room.

"Thanks, Whitney," Jasper said, yawning. Henry arranged himself a bed out of the blankets from Maggie's bed and smiled at me, preparing to crawl in his pile.

Jasper picked Maggie up carefully and tucked her in her sleeping bag. He crawled into the sleeping bag next to her with her head right next to her. She shifted, putting her head on his chest. He ran his fingers through her hair gently, and I felt my heart squeeze in a happy way. I looked over at Henry, who had transformed himself into a pile of blankets. I sighed, suddenly tired, and crawled into my sleeping bag, thoughts flashing in and out of my mind like needles coming up and down, in and out of a piece of clothing, swirling way too quickly in my mind.

_I hope Mom and my sisters are okay. I hope Maggie's okay. I can't believe I didn't notice earlier. I'm such an idiot. I'm glad Henry's parents like me. I love him so much. I'm scared that something will happen to him. He's amazing. I'm glad Jasper and Maggie are getting together. I can't believe that I didn't notice just how badly Maggie was doing! I'm SUCH an idiot. _

I rolled over, a drop of salty guilt falling down my cheek. Sniffing, I wiped my cheek to try to remove the tear. A hand stopped me. "Whitney?"

"Henry? What are you doing up?" _When did he get out of the sleeping bag?_

"I could ask the same of you. Are you okay?"

"I should have noticed that Maggie was sick." A sob clogged itself in my throat and I grabbed onto his shirt and began to cry.

"Whitney…" he hugged me. "Don't cry. Shh…don't, everything's going to be okay."

If he had said them in Russian, I would have thought my Daddy was speaking those words to me. Another sob started in my throat. "Daddy…"

He didn't say anything, just rubbed his hands up and down my back until I fell asleep.


	28. Chapter 28

Chapter Twenty-Eight

** OAS still not cured….cannot stop, must write more, and more, and more. Updating this much is awesome! I feel like I have some sort of connection to the document, I know every twist and turn! Ah…so much fun….so much joy! Peace and joy and love and such…wee…**

** In the last section, there was a quote. "When did he get out of the sleeping bag?" Henry wasn't in the sleeping bag, Whitney was just tired. Sorry for the unclear intentional mistake, please forgive your horribly diseased author. As for why Maggie had the wrong medication (again, may I add) that comes in later. Oooh, suspense, if you didn't already have enough of that in your diet.**

** I get the uncomfortable feeling that some of you enjoy my OAS. I kinda am. It's fun!**

Jasper's point of view:

If you thought that I would be able to sleep during Danger time, your head isn't on right. I stayed awake for a long time, long after Whitney and Henry had fallen asleep. I didn't really mind being awake by myself. It was kind of nice minus the fact that it was a period of fear and worry; there was a level of peace that had been missing with everything that had happened despite it. It felt good to be close to everyone. I felt bad for Whitney, but I let Henry talk to her. They needed their privacy in this.

Danger time, specifically, was the time when complications could occur that could not be seen earlier when the medication was prescribed. If it made her ill, we weren't supposed to give it to her again. If it didn't, she was to keep taking it, and she would be allowed to take painkillers. I couldn't give them to her at earlier as we didn't know about the new medication, so I hoped to give them to her later.

One of my arms was asleep, as Maggie had shifted herself with her head on my chest. I slid my arm gently out from under her, praying that I wasn't disturbing her. I glanced up at the clock again. Danger time had started. I felt something in my heart ache, and I felt a wash of worry. It would be easier if she was at least awake for this. "Hey, Mags," I whispered in her ear. "You awake?"

She mumbled something in her sleep, but didn't wake up. There was silence for a little bit before she said something again. "What's that?" I asked, listening closely. I didn't expect her to say anything, but instead I heard her mumble something that I didn't quite catch. I put my ear near her.

"No, stop it," she mumbled. She seemed to shiver abruptly. "No, stop. Stop, don't, it hurts," she said, louder now. She seemed really frightened. _Another nightmare_, I realised. _I hate these._

"Hey, Mags wake up! You're having a nightmare. Wake up!"

She was quiet for awhile, and I wondered if it had passed, before she began to cry out again, even louder this time. "Mags, it's okay. It's a nightmare." I crawled out of my sleeping bag and tugged her gently out of hers. I did what her dad had showed us, picking her up and walking around. She made a noise that sounded like she was crying and abruptly began to struggle against me. I had to sit down so that I didn't drop her. A movement came from the corner of my vision, and Henry crawled over to me.

"Should we call her doctor? He said to call if something weird started." Henry asked.

"Nightmares aren't exactly abnormal, but I'd rather be safe. He should be at home; he gave you his home number, right?" Henry nodded and walked silently across the floor. He took up the wireless phone and dialed a number quickly. "You committed it to memory?" I asked.

"Yes. Do you want to talk?" He held the wringing phone to my ear. Just then, Maggie shook again, beginning to scream. Whitney came over to us quickly and tried to shake her awake.

"Mags don't. Come on, wake up!" I pleaded. "You're okay, it's a nightmare. It isn't real."

"Jasper?" a tired voice on the other end of the phone asked. It was the doctor. I hadn't realised that the phone had stopped ringing. I stopped, immediately embarrassed. She wasn't screaming now.

"Yes, sorry to bother you. Maggie's having a really bad nightmare. Is there anything…"

"Yes, there are some things that you can do to help her. The main thing you have to do is try to wake her up. Is the nightmare continuous or is it stopping and starting over and over?"

"She seems to calm down and then it starts again," I said, unsure of exactly how to answer.

"Okay, that's what I was afraid of. The new medication that I gave her is making it hard for her to wake herself up. This means that she can be aware that she is having a nightmare, but is unable to get rid of it. The moments when she seems calm are when she's close to waking herself up. You can't do anything but keep talking to her. She may, at some points, be able to hear you, and your voices would be something for her to take strength from. Is she running a higher fever than before?"

I touched her forehead, wincing at the heat. "No, she's about the same. It hasn't broke yet."

"Okay I'll be over sometime tomorrow and I'll check on her then. Just keep talking to her, it's the only thing you can do for her. In the morning I want you to give her this medication again, and give her the medication from before, along with any painkillers for her head that she might need."

"Please tell me we are not going by trial and error," I pleaded. Whitney was talking into Maggie's ear quietly, obviously able to hear the instructions from the phone with the quiet of the room.

"No, not trial and error, I knew that this might happen. I just would have preferred not to put a lot of medication in her if we weren't sure she would need it yet," he said tiredly. "

"Okay, thanks. Goodbye." Henry hung up the phone for me and put it back. "You could all hear that?" I confirmed, hoping not to have to say it all over.

"Yes," Henry said. Whitney nodded, but quickly got distracted as Maggie began to scream again. I tried to brush the hair out of her face, but Maggie clung onto my arm.

"Jasper," she whispered, shaking. "Please help me."

"Hey, can you hear me?" I replied. _This is really weird, _I thought, confused.

"Yes," she responded. "I can't open…my eyes," she told me, beginning to cry.

"Shh, it's okay." I said, unsure of what to do. "Just stay awake for me, please. It'll get easier."

"I can't, I'm sorry," Another shiver came up. "Stop, don't. Stop, don't hurt him! Don't hurt them! I'm sorry, I won't, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to. No!" She shook herself and sat up, her eyes open.

"Mags…" I started. I didn't know what to say, so I paused after her name. I got the uncomforting feeling that she had been dreaming about something happening to us. "Mags, I'm sorry."

"I dreamed…about being back. There. I didn't want to be back. It was scary. You were there, somewhere else, away from me…all of you. I thought…I thought…" she said, crying.

"We're fine. We're all right here. See?" I said. I gestured to Henry and Whitney and back to us.

"Yes, I see…I'm…sorry…" she sobbed into my shoulder.

"Don't, I don't mind. It's not your fault that you're scared. I think your fever's going up again." I looked at Henry and he got her a glass of water. "Drink this and go back to sleep please."

She drank the glass of water and calmed down a little. "Thanks, Jasper."

"It isn't a problem. That's some crazy medication you're on, by the way."

"I don't want to take it. I hate it. It makes me feel worse, it's not helping."

"I know, but you have to. We're changing it slightly tomorrow, maybe you'll feel better."

"Hope so," she yawned, and looked embarrassed. "Tired again, I'm going to sleep." She fell asleep against my shoulder. I leaned my head against hers, wincing as I brushed against her hot forehead, and went to sleep myself, leaning against the couch.

I woke up in the morning to Henry crouching in front of me. "You slept sitting up," he said.

"I guess I did," I said, easing my legs out from under me. They felt horribly locked up and I winced. "Have you been up very long?" I noticed that it was barely light out, meaning it wasn't too late.

"No, not long at all. The doctor will be coming by soon. Uncle B is going to come see us later today. They can't move us to your house because the security equipment. It's easier for us just to stay here. Is Maggie awake? She needs to take her medication."

"I'm awake," Maggie mumbled. "I don't want my medication, though. Please." I tried to tell her something along the lines of 'you have to', but she stopped me. "I know, I know. But really, it's not helping me. It's just making everything even weirder than before."

"Part of that's your fever," I commented, testing her forehead. She sighed in agreement, and took the medication that Henry handed her. She swallowed it, grimacing. "Bad taste?"

"Yeah," she nodded, coughing. "It tastes like…how smoke smells. Where's Whitney?"

"Shower," Henry said, nodding towards the ceiling. I noticed that his hair was damp, so he must have had a shower as well. "You two are next. None of us smell pretty, and Uncle B comes tonight for dinner. We're all having dinner together, even Mr. Winnock, we shouldn't smell like bison."

Maggie took her shower before me, and I went last. Finally, we all got in the kitchen. I decided to help Henry with breakfast. There was a knock on the door, startling us.

"I'll get it," Whitney offered, going over to the door. I followed her with my eyes. She opened it.

"Museum," called a happy sounding voice. The doctor got himself through the door and quickly checked over Maggie. "Hm, your fever hasn't broken yet. Keep taking both medications and keep the windows closed. If you get too cold you could just get worse. And I brought you some soup." He gestured to a giant can of soup that he had set down. "I recommend opening it near lunch."

"Thank you," I said gratefully. He smiled at me, seeming a little tired.

"I best am going now," the doctor said, leaving as quickly as he had arrived.

"That was a little weird," Whitney said, staring at the door.

"Well, he is busy," I said. She nodded a little, but a look of concern flashed over her face.

"Your pancakes are burning," she told me, a smile replacing her earlier frown. I ran back over and flipped the charred breakfast item over. Henry laughed.

"Hey, hey…" I pretended to protest. "A little charcoal never hurt anybody."

We sat down to some extremely-crispy pancakes. Henry began laughing at the name pancakes. I gave him a look. "Do you have to laugh at the name of every food product that comes your way?"

"Only the funny ones," he said, still laughing. "They don't look like cakes to me."

"Didn't you have pancakes somewhere in the world before?" Maggie asked, sounding more like the Maggie I knew than she had in awhile. I smiled at her, but she was too busy questioning to notice.

"Of course, I just didn't think about food names so much. America points out just how funny it is." Henry insisted. I sighed at put my head in my hands.

The day passed in a slow, lazy, comfortable manner until lunch. Maggie slept a lot, and her fever still had not broken, but her head seemed to be feeling better now that she was allowed painkillers. Dad called and spoke with me, telling me that he was looking forward to seeing us at dinner, and then, much to my utter delight, told me he was proud of me for growing up with courage.

After the nice phone call, I decided to heat up the soup. Henry and Whitney came to find a pot for the soup. We went into the kitchen to find Maggie already digging around for a can-opener.

"Hey, Mags, what are you doing?" I asked.

"Looking for a can opener, I want to help," she said, going through with one hand. Her injured, bandaged arm sat relatively uselessly on the counter.

"Here," I said, handing her the can opener. She lined up the implement and froze. "Need help?"

"Yeah," she admitted. I had her hold the can with her good arm, and I began to pop the can open. Something seemed to jam about halfway through, and a clink noise came from inside the can, followed by a _pwhishpttttt _noise. I yanked the implement back out of the can, and white smoke started to billow out of it like the smoke from a fire.

Maggie and I stared at it for a minute before Henry let out a shout and yanked my arm, pulling me away from it. I grabbed onto Maggie, and all four of us ran towards the front door. We were only to the couch when the can began hissing louder, rattling and shaking. "Get down!" Henry shouted. I pulled Maggie down to the ground and got down next to her. "Shield your head!" I put my hands over my head, willing Maggie to do the same. The can exploded, sending metal flying everywhere and overwhelming us with a cloud of white, sickly-sweet smelling smoke. I uncovered my head, no longer able to see as the smoke was so dense. I heard Maggie coughing near me, and took her hand as I tried to get to my feet.

"Henry?" I called out, pulling Maggie to her feet.

"Here," he called back from somewhere near me. "Don't talk. Don't breathe it in. We have to get out of here! Maggie, try not to cough, please!"

The coughing stopped near me. I heard and felt a thud on the floor near me, and Maggie's hand slipped from mine. I felt a rush of dizziness overwhelm me and I heard another thump. _Whitney_, I realised, as I heard Henry begin to panic. My knees buckled beneath me as I collapsed into the white void.


	29. Chapter 29

Chapter Twenty-Nine

**Are you semi-dead with suspense yet? I am, and I know how it ends! At least, how I think it will end right now. You can never really tell as your characters get a mind of their own! Ah, so weird. Does that happen to any of you? You plan out the whole story and one of your characters does something strange and the whole story changes? Maybe I'm just weird…**

**Chapter twenty-nine! Unfortunately, we're heading to the end of this long story! But not yet! Nobody panic! And keep reviewing! At this very moment, I have 122 reviews. Some of those are me, so I probably have at least 115 reviews from my readers! Please keep reviewing!**

**This is a relatively short chapter. The next chapter will be longer, I promise! **

**Now, for your feature presentation: Chapter Twenty-Nine of Dripping Seconds!**

**P.S: I'm guessing quite a few of you will be able to guess who it is at the end. Oh what fun cliff-hanger endings are. For me, at east. It makes you a little annoyed, my friendly reviewers, but that's part of the fun!**

Henry's point of view:

_Apparently, _I decided as I regained consciousness, _this waking-up in random places is going to become a regular occurrence for all of us. _Memories of the last time I had been awake flitted through my mind, making vibrant pictures in front of my closed eyelids that I didn't want to see. My arms ached, and I shifted them into a more comfortable position where I wasn't lying on top of them, finding, to my relief, that my hands weren't tied. I opened my eyes. For a second, I thought I had been blindfolded as everything was so dark. I rubbed my face against my shoulder and found that there was no cloth there; I was just simply in a very dark room. _Not even a window?_ I pushed myself into a sitting position, ignoring lingering dizziness. I stood and fell back down as the darkness rotated sickeningly. There was definitely something weird in that smoke thing. "Anyone else here," I asked, praying for a response.

No words greeted my ears, but I heard a cough off to one side of me. I crawled desperately towards the sound, and realised the floor below me was cold stone. It had been wood the first time, when we found Maggie, signifying that I wasn't in the same place. I noted this fact mentally and continued to crawl, too afraid to attempt standing again. I bumped into the door, which I realised was also made of stone. _This place must be soundproof. _I bumped into someone, and noted that the foot was too big to be Maggie's or Whitney's. _Jasper_, I realised. I found his shoulder and shook him, trying not to be too rough. He mumbled something and sat up. "What," he said, noting the darkness with fear.

"It's me, Jasper," I told him. I felt his hand smack into me as he tried to find a handhold in life. I grabbed onto his wrist to give him something stable in this land of freezing shadows.

"Henry?" he asked, still sounding dazed from whatever it had been. "Where are we?"

"Yes. It's me, Jasper. I don't know where we are. We aren't where we were before though, the floor is different. Sit up, it'll help you wake up, but don't stand. I'm trying to find Whitney and Maggie."

"Someone's right behind me," he told me. There was a shifting of cloth. "I think its Whitney."

I crawled behind him and found the form. "Yeah, it's Whitney," I confirmed, brushing against her. No bandages. It had to be her. I shook her shoulder gently, but nothing happened.

"Maggie isn't waking up," Jasper hissed to me. I closed my eyes, trying to think of a reason.

"It's because they're smaller and lighter than us. It takes longer to wake up when you're small."

"That's why they went out first," he said. I smiled a little in the darkness. At least his brain was working, that's what we needed to figure things out. "It was…Maggie, Whitney, me, and then you."

"Yes," I confirmed, not wanting to think about it, but unable to push the memories off either. Images of the explosion overwhelmed me as memories released themselves; the feeling of metal slamming into me as we lay on the ground, the horrid, sickly-sweet smell of the smoke going over us, the sound of my friends, one by one collapsing. I shook my head. "Are you okay?" I asked Jasper.

"Yes, I'm fine," Jasper confirmed. "Dizzy. Is it just me, or is it cold in here?"

"It's not just you," I told him. "I'm cold too." It was true; it was freezing in our room. "Get Maggie and get over here. We can try to conserve body heat together just in case."

There was a shifting sound, and I felt Jasper's shoulder against my shoulder. There was another noise behind me that sounded sleepy and confused. "Whitney?" I asked hopefully, half-turning around.

"Where are we? Why's it dark?" she said, afraid. I grabbed her arm and pulled her in front of me so that she was right against me where it was warmer. "Henry?" she demanded, pulling away a little.

"It's okay, everyone's here," I said. She relaxed back against me and I rubbed her shoulder.

"Where are we?" she asked again, burying her face into my shoulder and shivering.

"We don't know yet. But we're working on it. We aren't where we were last time."

"The floors different," Maggie informed us groggily. "It was wood before." I heard Jasper gather her up in his arms, sighing with relief. I knew exactly how he felt.

"That it was. Nice to have you with us," I said, and she laughed quietly. It was an abnormally comforting sound in such a frightening place. It made everyone laugh a little and I pretended that I could see their smiles. I wish I could see everybody; the darkness was starting to get on my nerves a little bit. I was glad to have previously worked through my old fear of the dark. "Is everyone okay?" They confirmed that they were, though dizzy and cold as I was. "We need a plan. Where do we start?"

"What do we know?" Jasper asked to jog our thoughts.

"Well," I started. "We're in a room with stone floors. The walls are," I reached out to my side and felt the walls. "Stone as well. The door is also stone, making this place literally soundproof as well as being really cold. And we've been drugged for an unknown amount of time."

"And someone's coming," Maggie said. Sure enough, footsteps tapped outside our door. I pulled Whitney close against me, and felt her heart pound against my chest. I reached out and grabbed onto Maggie's wrist, knowing that she was holding onto Jasper. _Maybe, I_ reasoned pathetically, _if we all hold together, we could get through this together. _I felt Maggie's bandage under my hand and carefully released some of the pressure on her wrist, afraid that I would hurt her. "It's okay, Henry…" she whispered near my ear, sounding amused underneath her obvious terror. "I don't mind, it doesn't hurt very much," she insisted, though I doubted the truthfulness of her statement.

The footsteps had stopped, but there was a grinding, grating sound near the door. All four of our breaths hitched in our chests, and we pressed closer together. "Close your eyes," I commanded, not wanting anybody to be blinded.

The door came swinging open silently, and light shined through our eyelids rather than blinding us. "Why, hello there," a voice called. We all stiffened, recognizing the voice. My eyelids slid open, and I begged my mind not to recognise who I saw.

"What are _you _doing here?" I demanded. I was answered only by a laugh.


	30. Chapter 30

Chapter Thirty

**Chapter Thirty! Today I said that I should stay away from this story and take a break, but I really couldn't resist. School is starting up super soon and my schedule is going to be PACKED, so I figured why not put up some chapters while I can? I hope you like these next few, there aren't many left but they are going to be action packed! I promise! And I get the impression that many of you have figured out who our mystery person is. Well, you'll be sure in a few minutes! **

** I'd like to name off all my reviewers by name like I used to, but there is way too many of you now. So reviewers, you know who you are, and you are always wonderful and amazing to me and I would love to give you all hugs except I don't know where you are. *hugs the computer*, there, those hugs were for you. Hug the computer to receive them. And random people, if you snag a hug, I won't mind!**

** There is a full section of italics at some point. That is because that is a flash-back. Just thought you deserved a heads-up.**

Jasper's point of view:

Hearing the shock and surprise in Henry's voice, I cracked my eyes open. At first I thought it was the sudden light playing tricks on my eyes. _It isn't…it can't be._

"No," Maggie whispered. I held her closer to me, not wanting to believe it either.

"Yes, it's me, your kind doctor who you've trusted with everything these last few days." He laughed a laugh that made the hair on the back of my neck stand straight up. I wanted to kick him, but I didn't. _The easiest way to survive a kidnapping is to stay calm_, I remembered my dad telling over and over me when I was younger and learning about the dangers of strangers. I had to stay calm.

"But…you couldn't be the one who poisoned her," Whitney spoke up. "You were with Jasper."

"Couldn't I have ordered one of my friends from here to prescribe it?" he asked back. "Face it, kids. You've been set up from moment one. You were deluded into believing I was safe when I was accounted for during the poisoning, making me just as duped as you. After that were the attacks on her room. It didn't occur to you that it was strange that they knew _just where her room was? _ Both times they failed, but I was covered and helped take care of you after wards, so you trusted me, letting the plan continue. Then, you and your parents began to trust me with little things. Whitney, your parents aren't here, and Henry, everybody knows that yours are across the world. Maggie's mom is no longer with us, and Jasper, your mom isn't around either." I felt Maggie stiffen when he mentioned her mother, and I stroked her hair gently. That was a low blow, bringing up her mother like that. "Of course, then it was just a matter of time before you would all be left alone. I gave you the first medication, which I knew Maggie would eventually stop taking, causing her to get ill. Then, I would prescribe the second, which would give her the nightmares. Then, seeing as you had been awake all night and Maggie was still ill, it would make sense for me to come with soup as you would all be very tired and glad for something easy to make. We slipped a can of sleep gas in, and sealed it up; I have plenty of friends here who can do that. And then it was a simple matter of getting some of US on watch around you, and shutting down the equipment of all the security cameras so no one noticed when we carried you out of the house."

"You traitor," Henry growled venomously, sending shivers up my spine.

"Sorry, Henry," he mocked, not sorry in the least. "It had to be done." An odd look came over him, and he ran out of the room quickly, slamming the door and plunging us back into darkness.

That's just great. I hit my watch light, and noticed that it was three in the afternoon. Any other December 23, I'd be getting ready for Christmas Eve. This year, I'm waiting in a stone cell wondering if I'm going to die. _Sounds terrific,_ I thought bitterly.

Maggie shifted herself, still leaning against me. "At least we're together," she whispered.

I tried to imagine doing this by myself the way she had. "That's a plus. Is anyone…is anyone else really tired?" I rubbed my forehead, trying to stay awake.

"Yes," Whitney agreed. Henry and Maggie made sounds of agreement.

"We should sleep," Maggie put in, handing out a piece of information from her last stay with these people. "If they don't want you to sleep, you won't. It's good to sleep when we can."

I nodded at the dark wisdom of this sentence. "Okay, we'll sleep." I stretched out on the cold ground, noticing that the room was just wide enough for me to lie down with my feet against the wall. "This is a very narrow room," I commented.

I heard someone lie down next to me, and felt long hair brush into my face. "It's cold," Maggie said through chattering teeth.

"I know," I whispered soothingly, wrapping my arm around her so she was lying right against me. I could feel Henry on my other side, my fingers brushed against his shirt and he rested his hand on top of mine for a second to tell me that he was there. I closed my eyes and tilted my head to the side, managing to bury my face in Maggie's hair. Instead of removing it like I normally would, I smiled to myself, wondering why I hadn't noticed how good she smells ever beforehand.

"Are you smelling my hair?" she breathed.

"You smell good," I breathed back, abashed.

She laughed under her breath. "Okay, then." She shifted, putting her head against my chest. I drifted off to sleep, becoming a witness to dreams that reflected just how cold of a room I was in.

I awoke to a clattering sound outside the door and sat upright, having forgotten why the room was so dark. I remembered and pushed my hands against the wall before lying down, pressing my face into Maggie's hair. A click noise came from the door.

The door swung open and someone stepped into our room. "Anyone awake?" he whispered. I tightened my arms on Maggie and refused to respond, not wanting to see who it was.

Footsteps began to pound on the floor, and I instantly regretted having Maggie lie next to the door. Before I could do anything about it, a shadow passed over my eyes. "Little one?" a voice asked near me. I recognised the voice and slid my eyes open.

"You," I asked sleepily. I nearly slurred the word, and I had to wonder what was in the gas thing that was lasting this long. Everyone else was very deeply asleep, much to my shock.

"Yes, it's me. The monsters didn't get you? She is not a ghost either?"

"No. She isn't. Listen, you have to help us," I said desperately. "How do you like this game?"

"They don't know about our secret game. I don't like their games."

"Can you get us out again?" I asked desperately.

He bit his lip. "Yes. But one at a time, through the door, safely to somewhere where we are not, and no ghosts following me around, but only one at a time, you understand? Too much and they'll see, see? Very dangerous, if they see, it will be bad for you. There will be pain. Monsters," he shuddered. "I will find a way out. Will return, you see?" He left, plunging me back into darkness.

I waited for awhile before hearing footsteps outside the door again. The door swung open, but a different sounding set of footsteps came over to me. It was followed by four other sets of footsteps. "Why on earth are their hands free?" One asked. I felt Henry stiffen alongside me, and I knew that he was awake. I felt Maggie shift on my other side, and suddenly, there was a yelp.

"She bit me!" shouted the voice from before. I felt a smile start on my face. Maggie had bit him. _Serves him right, _I thought to myself.

The smile disappeared off of my face as Maggie was suddenly yanked away from me. I sat upright too quickly and banged my head into the wall. I stood up anyway. "Let her go!" I shouted, startling myself with my volume. Henry stood up behind me immediately, Whitney as well.

"The brat bit me," he said. Maggie kept her eyes on mine. She tried to smile a little, but was unable to as she was suddenly shaken by the vile idiot holding onto her shoulder. "Do you want me to let her go?" he asked in a horrible voice. He sounded like the kids who used to bully me when I was younger. I wasn't sure what to say. "Well, do you want me to let you go, sweetheart?" he asked Maggie, shaking her again. I noticed the bite mark on his hand. It looked like it had to hurt.

"Yes," she said quietly.

"Are you going to bite me again?"

She shook her head. "No."

"Alright, I'll let you go." He shoved her into a way, and she slammed into the stone with a sickening thud, collapsing down to the floor. I tried to go over to her, but someone held my arms, keeping me away from her. The person she bit picked her up and glanced at his minions. "Let him go. We're going to put her somewhere else." He looked at me. "You don't shout at us. We're in charge. And you don't bite either. You obey, got it?"

Before I could answer, the door swung shut behind them, leaving us alone in the darkness again. I slammed my hand into the wall, aware of a sudden snap and a rush of pain. Whitney grabbed my hand.

"I think he broke it," she told Henry. I noticed, but I didn't care. I pulled away from all of them.

_"Mags," I whispered, sitting down next to her on her porch. She had her face on her knees, her arms wrapped around her legs in a hug. "Mags," I whispered again, wondering what to do. I was twelve and didn't know what to do. Her mom had died, after all. Images of the crash began going in and out of my head._

_We had been driving Maggie, following her mom's car back. They had decided it would be fun for Maggie and me to ride in the same car, thinking we could engage ourselves in childish chatter, forgetting that neither of us 'chatted'. I remembered us bickering gently, and my dad only smiling as he listened to us for over an hour. _

_I remembered Dad swerving just out of the way as her mom's car slammed into a guardrail. I remembered the rip in the road, the shattered glass spilling everywhere. We pulled up to a screeching stop. One of the doors slammed open and closed, and Maggie went running across the pavement. I jumped out of the car as well, soon catching up with her as she starting trying to dig away at the rubble that used to be her car. "Mom, mom, mom," she whispered over and over. I grabbed her and pulled her away, pulling her against me and turning her face away from the wreckage. The car hissed and steamed in the road like a dying thing. I couldn't see her Mom. I couldn't see anyone but her through the smoke that was soon billowing around us, shielding us and trapping us all at once._

_I remembered her tears, wet and hot against my shirt as she cried no longer saying a word._

"_Mags," I whispered for a third time, resting my arm around her shoulders. She was crying. It had happened just three days ago, and she was still wearing the black dress from the funeral. She finally looked up then. It was night, and the light from the moon shined against the tears from her face._

"_I feel alone."_

"_You're not." I wanted her to believe it so badly. I loved her. I had known since the crash, since I had seen her running out into the smoke._

"_I can't stop thinking about it. It feels empty." She put her hand against her heart._

_I started to say something, but stopped, unsure of what to say._

"_Jas, the stars," she whispered, not quite focusing her eyes._

"_What about them?"_

"_I can see Mom," she whispered, pointing to a shape in the sky that I couldn't see, a constellation for her alone. Her arm fell back down to her side. "I'm sorry."_

"_You can do anything with help," I said, sounding corny to myself. _

_She began to cry again. "Are you here to help?"_

"_Yes."_

"_I can't do this alone," she said to herself. "Promise I'm not alone?"_

"_Promise," I said to myself. _

I had meant to keep it. Through every one of our petty fights, through every time she yelled and I yelled back, I was there. And the days when it hurt and she didn't know how to tell anybody, I was there. I was there for the empty holidays, sitting in the empty chair and filling a space.

I wasn't there now.


	31. Chapter 31

Chapter Thirty-One

**As a heads-up before hand, this chapter also starts right after Jasper breaks his hand by slamming it into the wall. Also, the next two chapters (meaning this one and the one directly after this) happen at the exact same time. I'll say this again at the beginning of the next chapter, so don't worry about having to remember it. I just figured I should say it beforehand because I always like to go into situations with as many facts as I can. It helps me calm down, but maybe I'm just special. **

** Thanks to my reviewers and everyone who returned my hugs/accepted them. You are all amazing, wonderful people and I like you a lot even though I never met you in real life. Sometimes I think this site should have a party, but then I remember that we're all scattered through the world. Yeah. That would complicate things. Still, it would be fun! We could eat cookies/sugary stuff and exchange stories about writing until our hands fall off our wrists. (I really hate it when that happens to me, it is so annoying. And the hospitals are rather tired of sticking my hands back on.)**

** As an added note: Once Dripping Seconds is over, I was thinking about maybe doing a little story on the memories I was using in the last chapter, meaning the crash that killed Maggie's mom and Jasper's role in her life from there. You see pieces of it in this story, but please PM me with your ideas on whether this is a good or a bad plan. Thanks!**

**Without further ado: Chapter Thirty-One**

Henry's point of view:

A sick crunch came just as my eyes were trying in vain to adjust to the thick, velvety darkness, following by a shifting sound as someone moved around in the darkness. The footsteps were lighter, so I assumed they were Whitney's, but I wasn't certain.

"I think he broke it," Whitney said to me, passing me Jasper's hand. I felt carefully along his hand and wrist and located a huge crack in the bones of his hand. I winced as my fingers skimmed over it.

"Jasper," I started. I realised he wasn't listening, obviously going through something in his head. I waited for a few seconds silently. I heard him begin to cry, and assumed he was back with us. "Jasper, can you say something?" His silence coupled with the fact that I couldn't see him was scaring me.

"Did I break it, Henry?" he asked me suddenly¸ surprising me out of my worry.

"Oh, yeah, you did," I said. I tried to gesture to the area, but he winced and yanked his hand away from me, hissing in pain. I realised that I had hurt him greatly. "Oh, I'm sorry, Jasper."

"No, it's not that bad," he said through gritted teeth. Something was bothering him besides his hand though. I could tell, but I didn't press it, afraid of causing him more damage.

I heard Whitney and Jasper sit down, and I sat down myself. The walls felt cold and damp through my shirt, and I shivered. We sat in silence for awhile, thinking our personal thoughts.

Someone eventually came in with a few bowls and a small lamp, which he set on a hook in the room. Pulling on a chain which he then removed, he got the lamp out of our reach. "Here," he said gruffly, setting the bowls on the ground. "Enjoy." He left again before we could say anything.

I looked around the room, noticing just how small it really was. It was Jasper's height across and couldn't be more than twelve feet the other way. I then turned my attention to Jasper's hand. In the time since he had broken it, it had swollen up and became horribly bruised. I tried to think of something I could do for it, but I couldn't come up with anything. Whitney brought over the bowls and we found that we were being served what we decided was either very watery soup or slightly-soupy water.

"I'll test it first. In case it is drugged," I offered. Before anyone could protest, I swallowed some.

"Is it okay?" Whitney asked. I made a face at the taste and she misread it. "Spit it out then! Henry!" she said in a very high-pitched voice. Jasper was silent, but stared at me with wide eyes.

"No, I think its fine, though I doubt it's been long enough to tell yet. It just doesn't taste very good and it's very cold." I said. Whitney let out a huge sigh and smacked my arm. "Hey!"

"Don't scare me like that," she scolded. She smelled her soup-whatever. "You know, I think I'm going to pass on this stuff." She said as she made a face that looked like mine had.

"But we don't know when we'll get the chance to eat again," I insisted. She looked at her bowl thoughtfully, shrugged, and took a swallow, looking like she might just throw up. Jasper followed our lead, holding his bowl with his good hand while his damaged hand sat on the stone floor.

When we were done, I set my bowl down in the corner, my mind whirling with plans that never made it to step one. "Okay. We need a plan and we need it quick. What tools do we have?"

"We have a door," Whitney said, gesturing to the giant slab of stone. I looked at her, confused. "Well, it's bound to be open at some time or other, if we can time we could overtake them and slip out. Only one person came with…that," she said, gesturing to her empty bowl.

"Good. Noted, anything else?"

"Maybe the lamp," Whitney continued. "It would be tricky, but if we could, we might be able to do something with some of its pieces. No windows, so last time's escape is out. These bowls are made of plastic, so nothing there…" she leaned back on the wall. "I can't think of anything," she said dejectedly.

"No, you're doing well. It's just that we don't have a lot to work with, Whitney," Jasper said, surprising me again. I couldn't tell when he was with us, and when he was back inside his mind. I finally figured out what feeling he seemed to be expressing. He was feeling guilty.

"Jasper," I asked, wondering if I was going to regret this. "Are you feeling guilty?"

Jasper hissed quietly to himself. "Yes," he admitted in one word of hurt, his voice raw.

"Why? I asked, trying to be delicate but not fully succeeding.

"I promised her I would be there. I promised she wouldn't be alone." He said this as though he was opening something up, ripping something old apart at the seams and laying it in front of me as though to say 'look, look. Look at this. Do you see?'

_No, Jasper. I don't see. But I think I hear. _

Jasper stared into my eyes desperately. "When she died?" I asked.

He nodded, looking relieved. "I was there. I saw the crash, we both did. I promised that she didn't have to do it alone. She couldn't. She didn't know how to."

"How old were you?"

"Twelve."

There. The moment fell open at the seams, at the scenes. A young Jasper and Maggie, a car crash, broken pieces of hearts lying fractured in the air. It all made sense now. The utter closeness, the way they stood when they were fighting, like their older selves were shoving each other away, but their twelve-year-old selves were still clinging to each other, stronger than the petty worries and fights.

"Oh," Whitney said in a breathless rush, a rush of air more than a word. I wondered if she was seeing what I was.

Footsteps, clattering once again down the hallway. We didn't have time to get into position.

"You?" a voice asked, stepping into the room. It was our friend again. "Yes, I tried. I can't get you out. Where is she?" he asked, looking around. "She goes bye-bye?"

"They took her; do you know where she is?" Jasper asked.

"I don't go there," he said, fidgeting nervously. "I can't get you out. Sorry. So sorry, but here. Quickly. Not enough time," he tossed me something.

A phone.


	32. Chapter 32

Chapter Thirty-Two

**Tally pointed this out and I checked this, but I realized that yes, this is the longest Unnatural History story in the archive. Weird thought, no? It is for me.**

**As I told you last chapter, this chapter has a bit of an overlap to it. It starts right before the Thirtieth chapter ended. It's pretty easy to understand, but it's not quite chronological. You can PM me any questions you have if something is confusing, I'd love to help! And review your comments about this way of doing things, please.**

** I've been planning my next story. I'm thinking about doing a Henry x Maggie story (how does everyone feel about that? You can review about that too), just to be balanced. Also, there have been some requests that I try that sort of thing (Thanks Tally). I decided that instead of making the memories I mentioned in the author's note of the last chapter into a story, I'll just space them out in here because they are somewhat important to the end of the story. Thank you for reading and reviewing. I appreciate it a lot; I have over ten pages of reviews now!**

Maggie's point of view:

My head slammed into the wall and I felt my legs give out. I heard Jasper shout something and their voices taunting back. Someone swung me up onto their shoulder, and I let my vision blur and my eyes close.

Everything was a rushing blur of sounds and colours before I became aware of myself again. Obviously they knew that I was unable to get myself out, as I was in a room with lights and a huge, cracked-open window that exposed me to the cold December air. And they were right; I wasn't able to do a thing to help myself. My head was pounding sharply, and I was curled up in a ball, my head resting against one of my arms. My bandage had long since been removed from my other wrist, and someone had reopened my arm along the old wound before I was aware of what was happening. I couldn't tell if I had been in the room long. The rust-salt smell of blood assaulted my nose as I held my arm close to my face, and I realised that I was still bleeding. I put my hand to my ribs, and located the old, dirty bandages from before. They weren't going to help me, so I bit down on a section of my shirt sleeve and ripped it, setting my wrist clumsily on the piece of cloth. I couldn't tie it by myself, so I wiped at the blood with it and used it to press down to stop the bleeding. Blood still oozed out of it, and I gave up.

Forcing myself into a sitting position, I looked out the window for a sign of anything that would show that someone was going to help me. There was nothing outside the window but a rather large bush with tiny scraps of blue sky peaking around the leaves. _We see you, Maggie, we see you. Do you see us, we see you _they seemed to say. I didn't know whether to laugh or to scream. I collapsed back down weakly, lying on my stomach on the cold stone floor.

"You awake?" Idiot asked me. I hadn't been aware that he had been in the room. He might have come in during of wave of pain. I was no longer paying attention. It had ceased to matter. His presence reminded me of my desperation. A cold wave of fear slid itself up my spine and in between my shoulder blades like a cold, shiny knife, and I shuddered. He saw my open eyes and smiled to himself. _A cat with a mouse,_ I thought to myself. _And the mouse can't even run_. "Yes, you're awake, aren't you, Margaret?" He reached out as though to grab me or to hit me, which I wasn't sure. The prick of fear stab in between my shoulder blades, twisting impossibly and driving itself deep into my heart. I did my best do duck away from him, getting out of harm but not out of his reach, and his fingers brushed my face, scraping against my cheeks painfully. The dents of my teeth and small splotches of blood were still visable in his hand as it sailed by, and I felt a grim sort of joy. I thought about biting him again, but decided against it. I didn't think I could take another beating, everything hurt too much. "You're feverish," he said with an air of contempt, as though my illness had personally insulted him. He pulled away from me, striding across the room, and opened the door, calling down the hallway in words I didn't recognise. I put my head down against my arms, ignoring the smell of blood. Hand by hand, thought by thought, I drew the fear knife out of my back and tried to toss it aside. _I'm not scared, _I insisted dully. _I'm not. I can do this._

The scene reset itself. My head was tilted back against the floor, and I was lying on my back. I didn't know when I had been moved. I was so busy focusing on not feeling the fear. It was my only hope.

Someone else was leaning over me, the doctor who I had trusted to help me. He brushed against my forehead. "Yes, she's feverish. And her wrist is bleeding. Nothing serious, leave her be. The fever will just make her easier to deal with."

Idiot laughed at me, and the doctor joined in. I remembered him mentioning my mother, and horrible, rasping sobs started in my throat. He had no right to talk about her. No right to soil all my precious memoires of her with his horrible voice. I shut his voice out, forcing him out of my mind.

When I looked up, he was gone. A bowl of something or other was lying on the floor. I crawled over to it and identified it as very watered down soup. I tried to drink a little of it, but it hurt too much to swallow, so I forced it away from me and curled up in a ball on the floor, pulling my arms against my chest to keep warm and wiping away the last of the little drops of blood that were contaminating the air around me. Why was it so cold in here?

I noticed a thin cloth had been tossed a few feet from me, and I grabbed the corner, tugging it over me and pulling it over my head so that I was in a cave like I used to when I was young and afraid. I closed my eyes and waited motionlessly for awhile. The air trapped under the blanket with me became warm and I relaxed a little, lulled by a thin screen of security.

Again, footsteps found their way into my room, and I tucked my face against the blanket and my shirt. The blanket was torn off of me, and I winced as the cold air finally got to me, making me even colder than before. I looked up and then back down, afraid. Someone sat down next to me, and I shivered. I couldn't pretend not to be afraid anymore.

"Hey, sweetheart," said a cold voice that I had heard a couple times. I glanced up again, and my eyes widened as my memory kicked in, telling me exactly what I didn't want to hear. _No. God no,_ I thought to myself. "Did your Daddy tell you about me?"

My father had thought it was wise to let me know of his enemies when I was little. I could still remember these meetings. The man standing in front of me was one of them, the first of them.

_"Maggie?" Daddy called me into his study. I came up the stairs quickly and obediently, standing in the doorway with my hands clasped in front of me politely. Mom stood right behind me. Nervousness washed over me. Had I done something wrong?_

_ He looked at me seriously, turning himself into Colonel Winnock. A smile then spread across his face, turning him back into Daddy. "Come here, Maggie." He said gently. I came over to him, walking carefully instead of stomping around like I normally did, a little bit of nervous still in my feet and my clasped hands. I couldn't have been more than six or seven, so I sat down on his lap when he patted his legs and calmed down a little. "Maggie, you know that my job is difficult but important, don't you?" _

_ I nodded, still a little nervous. Why had he called me here? "As a member of the air force you do pledge to protect the United States of America and all of its citizens from those who may wish it harm, most often in the area of aerial war fair, but in extreme cases you may be asked to help in other situations, and in such a case you will do so." I recited, recalling a vivid picture._

_ "You remember all that?" he asked, surprised. I had read that from the plaque above his door._

_ I looked at him and nodded. He smiled at Mom. "You have a photographic memory, Maggie. Don't worry, that will make this easier. My job makes it so that sometimes I have enemies, Maggie. These people are very bad. They don't like me because I don't let them do bad things. Since you are my little girl, this makes things dangerous for you. Do you understand?"_

_ I nodded. He took out a piece of paper and set it on the desk in front of us. A man with wild reddish brown hair and slit-like angry eyes looked back at me. I shuddered as his face burnt into my mind painfully. "This is my old friend. His name is William Waingaurd, except he will often not use that name."_

_ "If he's your friend, why might he be mean?"_

_ "Let's just say that awhile ago he went and became evil. He attempted a lot of plans that would end up hurting a lot of people, probably killing many of them. I stopped him, but he got away. He is very angry at me for this, and I don't want him to hurt you because you're my little girl. I need you to remember him; can you do that for me? Is the picture clear?"_

_ "Yes, Daddy," I whispered._

"William Waingaurd," I hissed slowly.

"You're dad did well," he said, sitting back on his heels and looking me over with his eyes. They weren't slit-like now. But they still looked crazed, as though everything inside his mind was on fire and yet still calculating. I shivered again as his eyes passed over my face. "You look a lot like your mother."

My heart froze over. He laughed. "Oh, yes. I knew your mother. Not well, of course." He held something up, and my frozen heart sunk. Mom's necklace, the one she had been wearing the day she died. They said it was lost in the crash. He let it fall, clattering to the floor.

"You…"

"Yes. I killed your mother, sweetheart. I killed her to get back at your father, to get him off my tail. I sabotaged the car so perfectly that they couldn't tell. And you…" his face coloured with fury and he slapped me. I fell over, my ears ringing. There was blood in my mouth, I could taste it. I swallowed several times. He composed himself. "You should have been in the car. I thought you were, and then, as I was checking to make sure you two were dead, _you run up from a different car! _I was going to kill you then, but that boy ran up behind you and it would be too suspicious if both of you were dead."

"You were in the smoke."

"Yes. I was in the smoke. I watched you then. I watched you go home. I watched you at the funeral, and there I was so close. I watched you for weeks, but that _boy _wouldn't _leave you alone. _He was always following you around, and I never got a clear chance to kill you. But that changes now." He slid his hand into his back pocket. "The boy is gone. The police are gone. It's just you and me, and this here gun." He held the gun up in front of me, the mad light dancing in his eyes. "Finally, I've been trying to kill you for years. Finally."

_Bang._


	33. Chapter 33

Chapter Thirty-Three

**Chapter thirty three! Double threes, I like threes. They're nice and sweet and well-behaved.**

** Oops, sorry. That was a synesthesia moment. Happens from time to time, especially when I'm excited, and I'm very excited right now. I love this story. It makes me feel happy and appreciated. Most people don't like my writing. I'm so glad I've finally found people who actually like my writing. It makes me feel appreciated and it's amazing.**

** Just for the heck of it, I'm going to let anyone who reviews vote on whose perspective the next chapter should be in. Let me know by this evening, please! Thanks!**

** Thanks for everyone's reviews. I'm glad so many people enjoy this story as much as I do.**

Jasper's point of view:

"Henry," I said, tossing him the phone. "Call 911 and then get out of here. You too, Whitney," I said, looking at the guard. "Can you let us out? We'll get ourselves out." He nodded and I went to the doorway. "Which direction is she in?" I asked. He pointed to the right.

"Where are you going?" Henry asked, looking at me in surprise. He had the phone ready to dial.

"I just got a god-awful feeling that something bad is going to happen to her if we don't find her now. Just call, and then get out. I can do this," I said, seeing him start to protest. I rushed out the doorway, immediately going on high alert. _What would Henry do? _ I thought as I went down the hallway. I stopped at every door, listening intently for any sign of life that could make it through the door.

I got to one door and heard voices. Apparently the room wasn't soundproof. Straining, I listened at the door. "Yes. I killed your mother, sweetheart. I killed her to get back at your father, to get him off my tail. I sabotaged the car so perfectly that they couldn't tell. And you…" There was a sound like someone being slapped. "You should have been in the car. I thought you were, and then, as I was checking to make sure you two were dead, _you run up from a different car!_I was going to kill you then, but that boy ran up behind you and it would be too suspicious if both of you were dead."

_The car crash, Maggie's mom,_ I realised, frozen. Sure enough, I heard Maggie's voice. "You were in the smoke." She said it like she was hurt. Like she was going to cry, I wanted so badly to run in there. _Wait for the right moment, Jasper. _

"Yes. I was in the smoke. I watched you then. I watched you go home. I watched you at the funeral, and there I was so close. I watched you for weeks, but that _boy_wouldn't _leave you alone. _He was always following you around, and I never got a clear chance to kill you. But that changes now. The boy is gone. The police are gone. It's just you and me, and this here gun." There was a clicking noise like a gun, and my heart went nuts. "Finally, I've been trying to kill you for years. Finally," the voice hissed, sounding like a madman. He was going to kill her!

_What do I do? What do I do? _I thought. I looked around and noticed a large rock near a door, like it had been used to prop something open. I picked it up and threw it down the hallway listening as it banged and skidded around a corner. Maggie's door flew open, and without looking my way, someone rushed out down the hallway, turning around the corner. I slid into the room. "Maggie!"

"Jasper," she called back. I ran over to her, she was lying bunched up on the ground like she had been dropped there. She looked so badly hurt that I hesitated to pick her up. Desperation seized me and I picked her up gently, trying my best to keep her weight on my arm instead of my broken hand. The movement seemed to hurt her, and she threw up, barely missing my shoes.

"Are you okay?"

She shook her head, not elaborating. I saw a piece of her sleeve with blood all over it.

"Are you bleeding?"

She held up her arm, showing me a long, somewhat deep slash down her arm from her elbow to her wrist. "They redid it, the one from before, for my sweater. The false lead, remember..." She threw up again and let out a small cry. "Jasper, you've got…to get out of here."

I rushed over to the window. There was a giant bush in the way, and we were obviously on the second story. I climbed through the window and crawled into the bush where we couldn't be seen just as the door slid open.

"No. She couldn't have gotten away." I heard him shout something that sounded like a curse and he ran out of the room.

"How are you going to get down?" Maggie breathed. I really hadn't thought about that. How was I going to get down with just my legs?

"We're going to use teamwork. Grab the branch by your face." She grabbed the branch and I stepped down onto the lower one, realising that this was just a very fluffy tree. Partway down I realised that she was shaking really badly. I could feel her burning with the fever that they had given her. "Maggie?" I asked. _Please don't pass out. Please don't. I can't help you here._

"My mom…he killed my mom…"

"I know, I know. Shh…shh…" I had gotten to the bottom of the branches and realised that I would have to jump to the ground. "Maggie, I have to jump. Grab on tight and don't scream."

She clutched onto my shirt and pressed her face into my shoulder. I bit my lip and jumped, landing on the snow wrong with my face in a bank. Maggie fell from my arms and rolled slightly. I shoved myself up and carefully crouched down next to her, brushing the snow off of her. I couldn't believe I had let go. "Mags, I'm so sorry. Are you okay? Can I pick you up?"

She nodded, but whimpered when I picked her up. "Am I hurting you?"

She shook her head, but I didn't believe her. "Where are they?" she asked.

"I told them to get out of the building. I hope they did." I pressed by back against the tree, allowing it to give me some cover. A shadow fell over me, and I started.

"Jasper," Henry said, sounding relieved. "Come on." I didn't bother asking where. He led us to a wood. He had managed to find a hollow tree that was large enough for us. Whitney helped me get Maggie into the tree, and Henry and I clambered in. "Do they know we're out?" Henry asked quietly.

"Yes," I said back.

Maggie reached down her shirt and pulled out a necklace with trembling hands. I cupped it in one hand, looking at it. "Isn't this your mom's?" I asked, remembering it gleaming on her mother's neck the day…the day her mom had died.

"Yes…he…he took it. From Mom, after she died. Jasper…I was supposed to be there…the car…"

"I know. I heard." Henry and Whitney were looking at us curiously. I took the liberty of speaking. "When I got in, this guy was talking to Maggie before he was going to shoot her. He told her that he was responsible for Maggie's mom's crash. He had expected Maggie to be the car too, but we took her in our car. When she ran to the crash and he realised he hadn't killed her, he was going to kill her, but couldn't because I followed her." I shuddered. He had been right there in the smoke, just out of sight. If I had come just a few seconds later, would I have found Maggie's body lying on the pavement?

"Why'd…why'd he try to kill you," Henry asked. I looked at him sharply, wishing he had been more sensitive, but Maggie didn't seem to mind.

"His name is William…William Waingaurd."

"You mean _the _William Waingaurd?" I demanded. "Oh, God…Maggie…" I instinctively tightened my hand on the necklace. That guy was an utter lunatic. He had killed many innocent people in horrible ways. If he had shot Maggie, it wouldn't have been a clear shot to kill her. It would have been a shot to cause pain. "And he was trying to shoot you…do you know who that is?"

"Yes, my dad…they used to be friends." she said, stumbling as she spoke. "He…William, went evil. Daddy told me about him when I was little…so that I wouldn't get hurt, he wanted to hurt us…all along, since I was six or seven. As revenge because…Daddy stopped him that one time…" She shivered. "He was busy for awhile, but he came back to finish it…he killed Mom…and he's been trying…to get at me ever since," she said, looking up at me. "But you were always there when he wanted to kill me, Jasper. You got in his way…"

I had inadvertently saved her. Without knowing, I had saved her life. I let her mother's necklace fall down back against her chest, watching it glimmer through the air on its way down. I remembered her arm bleeding and reached for her arm. She flinched when I touched her. "Can I see?" I asked gently.

She nodded, and I looked at the cut on her arm. It was bleeding again, probably from me tugging on it when I picked her up. I hissed in sympathy. I heard a ripping sound near me and Whitney handed me a long strip of her shirt. I tied it as best as I could around Maggie's arm, but the cut was long and my hands were freezing and numb. She smiled anyway, but clamped her head between her hands suddenly.

"You okay?" I asked helplessly. '_Are you okay?' Duh, she's not okay!_

She shook her head and winced. "It hurts. My head…all of me, it hurts."

I took the edge of her shirt in my hands and eased it up so I could see her back. She was a mess of cuts and bruises. I undid the bandages around her side. "They got your ribs pushed back in a little." The doctors had worked so hard to pop her ribs 'back into place' as they put it, just to have them knocked around again. I redid the bandages to the best of my abilities and let her shirt fall. "Did you call 911," I asked Henry.

"No," he said, and handed me the phone. I then realised what was wrong: the battery compartment, empty, no batteries. My stomach sunk in dismay, and Henry read my face. "We just came here to meet up. We'll have to walk. We noticed…we noticed there was none when we were escaping, but there just wasn't the time, Jasper. I'm sorry."

"No, there wasn't something that you could have done. It's fine. Do you know if there are any houses near here?" I asked Henry.

Whitney answered for him. "Our friend told us that there was. It might be a long walk."

I climbed out of the hollow tree, instantly missing the shield from the cold it had given me. "Okay, then. I reached back in for Maggie and set her down next to me, hating how loud my feet crunched on the snow around the base of the tree. "They're bound to come looking for us soon. We should get a head start."

Henry and Whitney climbed out of the tree. We set out, heading farther into the woods, too nervous to try to head back towards the house. We walked until we got to the edge of the woods, all of us stumbling with exhaustion and numb with cold. A storm started, the wind buffeting around us and blinding us.

"Hold on to each other," Henry shouted over the wind. I saw his shape grab Whitney's hand, I felt Whitney's icy hand grab mine. I reached back and grabbed onto Maggie. We walked in the icy blinding confusion for awhile. Up ahead I could see a light. Like moths, we gravitated towards the light.

The light seemed to see us. It bobbed up and down as thought it was nodding, coming closer to us. I soon realised that it was attached to a person. The person loomed over me as though I was lying down. I realised that I was afraid until I saw that they were smiling and it was only a thick coat that was making them seem so big.

"Come on, let's get you inside," said the voice. It sounded kind and warm. I felt very safe all of a sudden. The voice reached down and yanked me up, and only then did I realise I had sat down in the snow. The voice pushed me along as though I was a snowflake. I was clinging to the light with my mind. All it had to do way bob up and down and smile and wink with the soft, kind voice carrying it, and I would follow.

The light led me to a house, where the form yanked itself out of its winter coat and set us in front of a roaring fire. He left the room. Someone else bustled and leaned over us. This one was a woman rather than a man. "Oh my goodness…you're soaked," she said, tossing a load of warm, dry clothing at us. "Here, change out of those wet things," she insisted. She turned away, not looking at us. I glanced at Whitney and Henry and Maggie. They were all clutching their clothing. We glanced at each other and all turned, facing away from each other as we changed quickly. Everything felt surreal. She gathered up all the soaked clothing and took it out of the room. She came back with some tea. "Now, who are you?" she asked, forcing a cup of tea into my numb hand. I looked up at her for the first time, and she seemed surprised. "You're the Bartlett boy!" she said, a joyful smile spreading across her kind face. "And this must be the rest of you. I'm so glad we found you," she said, looking at Henry and Whitney and Maggie. Maggie looked like she was falling asleep. I felt like going to sleep myself, it was so nice and warm.

"Yeah, I'm Jasper," I confirmed. "And this is Henry and Whitney and Maggie. We were kidnapped by your neighbor on the other side of the woods but we escaped."

The man came back in. "I just called up the police to tell them we found you. The line is dead."

"Are they possibly coming after you?" she asked.

We were interrupted by a knock on the door. The wife motioned for us to follow her, and we quickly rushed into their room and next to her bed. The bed didn't seem to have legs, it was just a solid mass of wood from the mattress. "This is where we store extra blankets in the summer," she said in a hushed voice, yanking back her mattress and sliding some bed slats out of the way. "You can hide here. There will be air." Sure enough, there was a small compartment. We clambered into the compartment, and she rearranged the mattress slats back over us. And just as we heard the door click open, she let the mattress fall, shielding us completely.


	34. Chapter 34

Chapter Thirty-Four

**I was going to wait some more and demand feedback about who's perspective to use when I realised that we haven't talked with Whitney for way too long. (So that you don't have to check, the last time we used her perspective was the chapter when she was talking with Henry's parents over the webcam, more commonly known as Chapter Twenty-Seven.) I thought she would feel horribly left out, so I let her do the perspective. Sorry, Rose angel 428, I'll make the next chapter in Jasper point of view just for you! Thanks!**

** I don't think I was very clear about this last chapter. The neighbors that they're staying with currently know who they are/that Maggie's hurt/the severity of the situation. The phone line is just simply dead due to the storm, so they don't have anything they can really do about that for the moment. Sorry about the unclearness.**

** Thanks to all who have reviewed. I have one hundred and fifty-one recorded reviews, counting those that are mine. Please review on this chapter as well, I love the reviews! **

** Please don't use Dripping Seconds for the following request: I am thinking about trying a Henry and Maggie story next, just so I can figure out which pairing I like better for the future. I have a few, scattered ideas. If you could send a message to my inbox with an idea or two, I will be glad to consider them. If I don't end up using them, I'll keep them around and maybe pull them out some other time.**

** Well, this was a long Author's note. Talk to you later! ~Synesthi~**

Whitney's point of view:

For a second, in the darkness, I had forgotten how to breathe. The mattress covered us like an eclipse, and I could feel it suddenly push against my back as I pressed against the floor. A feeling of overwhelming claustrophobia swelled over me, though I had loved tight spaces all of my life. I slid my hand up to my face and pinched my nose shut for a minute, taking in large chunks of air that tasted like dust and wood. For a second, I thought I tasted fear. _Darn you, Henry. You're wearing off on me!_

I wondered if anyone else felt like the mattress was crushing the life out of them.

Outside of our small, hidden compartment, I could hear many people walking around.

"Hello," said a voice near the door. Jasper stiffened next to me.

"What?" I breathed. I tensed, wondering if I was going to get us killed.

"That's William," he breathed. My breath clammed up in my throat and choked me. I wondered if I was going to die before I managed to force my fear away from my throat and breathe.

"How are you doing?" asked the voice of the kind man who had found us in the snow. His voice was cheery and earnest, the voice you would expect someone who didn't have people stowed under his bed to use. "What brings you out here on such a stormy evening? Nothing serious, I hope."

"We're looking for some teenagers. Two girls and two boys, they went out for a walk before the storm and we think they got lost when it hit. Have you seen them?" Though the voice was that of evil, but it was sweet and kind, as though its owner was truly concerned about the welfare of those he searched for. I laughed silently and ironically in my mind.

"No, we haven't," said the wife. "This farm is far away from everyone else. I don't see you around very much. Which address are you at?"

_Clever, _I thought. Now we'd have their hideout. Hopefully we would be the last people to ever go through an ordeal like that again.

I heard William begin to give out his address. Over him, another person began to speak. "Hey, can I use your bathroom?" he asked nonchalantly.

"Yes, of course. It's just through the bedroom."

I stiffened as I heard Jasper make a snuffling noise. He sounded like he was going to sneeze. "Don't!" I hissed just as he entered the room. We could hear the footsteps shuffle around the room. He wasn't heading for the bathroom; instead he shuffled around the room as though he was searching. I found myself holding my breath.

_Bang! _ The wood clattered right in front of my face. He had kicked it out of frustration. It shook, and Henry slid his hand between me and the mattress and pushed down on my shoulders to keep me still. My heart kicked into high gear, and I had to work to steady my breath.

The footsteps left the room and we let out a simultaneous sigh of relief. William and his friends left, and after wishing them the best of luck in finding us, they came back and yanked the mattress off of their bed. Air came rushing in through the bed slats as they removed us, allowing us out of our small coffin-like hiding place. We sat down back by the fire.

"Can you call the police?" I asked desperately, combing through my still-wet hair.

"The lines out, sweetheart," I was reminded by the husband. I felt stupid, but also very weak and scared. My hands hurt as they gingerly tried to untangle the knots from my hair.

My borrowed shirt is much too big, and I roll up the sleeves to look at my hands. I noticed for the first time that my hands were very scratched up from the tree; long, shallow scrapes that snake their way up past my elbow. There is a little bit of blood on me. I looked at Jasper with his swollen hand and slightly-scratched up face with his mostly-healed bruises, to Henry with several scratches that looked a lot like mine on his hands and arms, to Maggie who was clamping her hands against her head again. One sleeve seemed to be stained with her blood. I went over to sit next to her and tried to wrap my arms around her shoulders. She hissed in pain, sounding like a trodden-upon snake. I drew my hands back. "Sorry, Mags," I whispered.

"Would you like some bandages?" the wife asked me. I nodded, and she brought back some strips of cloth and a pail of water with some hydrogen peroxide to clean things with. "Sorry, we're fresh out of band-aids. We don't go to the main city very often. Do you know how to use these?"

"I do," Henry said. He took the bucket. "Thank you." She nodded and left, saying she was going to get us some more tea. "Maggie, can I see your arm?" Henry asked. She nodded carefully and held out her arm to him. He pulled back her sleeve and winced as he saw the long cut that stretched from her wrist to her elbow. "Ow…what did you do," he demanded.

"I didn't…they did. I don't remember it, when I woke up it was bleeding. That's where they did it the first time. To make the trail, my sweater, I don't remember…but it hurts."

"Shh…yeah, they really cut you up there. Here," he grabbed one of the strips of cloth and soaked it in the water, carefully cleaning away the blood. He then took the hydrogen peroxide and wiped her arm with it.

"Ah!" she cried, trying to pull away from him. He kept his hands clutched on her arm.

"Maggie, I'm sorry. I'm trying to keep it from getting infected." He successfully cleaned it out and wrapped another strip of cloth around her arm carefully. "It's not very good, but it might help a little. Are you hurt anywhere else?"

"My…head…" she mumbled drowsily. "Just…little things…elsewhere, it all hurts so much."

"I know." He pushed her down gently. "Stay warm. It's a bad concussion. Sleep if you can, I have to wake you up every once and a while." She nodded drowsily. "Jasper let me see your hand again."

He went down the line like our own personal nurse, fixing things that he could like my scratches and trying to help along the things like Jaspers hand, which he could do nothing for but wrap a few bandages around as a reminder to not hit it again. Before long, with some tea in us as we sat by the fire, we were feeling closer to normal than we had in a long time. Maggie had curled up in a crumpled heap on the floor in front of the fireplace, mumbling something in her sleep every once and awhile. The wife of the farmer covered her up with a blanket at one point, and every few hours one of us would have to shake her awake. She hated it when we did that. She kept refusing to drink anything too, every time we woke up Jasper would offer her food or water, but she kept insisting that it hurt too much to chew or swallow. They gave her some aspirin, but other than that we couldn't help her until the line started.

"I wish I had brought my phone," Jasper groaned for what seemed like the thirtieth time.

"We heard," Maggie mumbled, cracking an eye open. "Quit blaming yourself. At least we're safe now." He rolled his eyes a little and she stuck her tongue out, laughing a little to herself.

"How's your head?" he asked.

"It hurts; don't make me think about it. Is it Christmas Eve yet?"

Jasper glanced at his watch. "No, not yet, it's only nine in the evening." He went back over to the phone and cradled the phone against him. "No, no dial tone yet." He sighed and put the phone back against its compartment, letting it settle a noisy clump. "Do you think they're looking for us? Like, Dad and everyone?"

"I'm sure of it," I answered. "I wonder if they called Mom." I felt a lurch of guilt and homesickness in my gut. What was Mom thinking? Was she thinking about losing me like we did Dad?

Jasper set himself back down, leaning back against the bricks of the fireplace. He glanced at Maggie, who was still curled up like a cat under the blanket. "With your fever, shouldn't you be trying to cool off?" he asked.

"It wouldn't do me any good. It's a chemical fever," she muttered. "A fever caused by medication that was designed to make me ill. Their plan was really good. If it didn't make me furious, I'd be seriously impressed. Now," she said, shivering, "we just wait for it to be over and hope that I don't need some antidote to make it go away. If so, then you have another cure to find, Henry." She smiled a little and closed her eyes.

Jasper looked at Henry desperately. Henry didn't wait for him to ask. "Of course I would."

I knew without asking as well. Maggie was making a reference to a story they had told me about some sort of mysterious bat fever that Jasper had caught. "I'd prefer not to try a stunt like that again. That was way too close for comfort," Henry added.

"No kidding," Maggie said, her eyes still closed.

"Okay, I can't tell if your ever awake or not," I said, joking. Her eyes fluttered open.

"Somewhere in between," she said groggily. "Bordering on both, bordering on neither, I'd like to be asleep though. It doesn't hurt there. And Henry…I hope you don't ever have to do anything like that again either."

"Will you _please _have something to drink," Jasper pleaded.

"I told you, I tried the soup back there and I couldn't get myself to swallow. It hurts. Now, if I may," she closed her eyes. "I'm really going to go to sleep this time."

We were silent for a little bit before a sound startled us. I jumped and looked around.

"Don't worry," Jasper said, "it's just…" he trailed off, his eyes widening as he listened to the sound. "The phone!"


	35. Chapter 35

Chapter Thirty-Five

**The impossible has happened! That's right, I'm alive and back writing for all of you who have been on withdrawal for months! For those of you who didn't get the memo, my computer went down and would not come back up and took an obscenely long time to fix. But its back now, so I guess I'm back doing what I'm best at, writing strange little Fan Fiction pieces for other Fan Fiction writers. **

**PS: I recommend going back and reading the last chapter if you can't remember where we left off. I couldn't, and I wrote it, so no shame for you.**

Jasper's point of view: 

I ran to the phone and then froze, my hand hovering over the receiver as I tried to figure out what to do. What if it was them? Then they would know where we were and then it would be my fault if I got us all killed. That would be horrible. So I waited until Mr. Farmer Guy (I REALLY need to learn his name) came and got the phone for me, smiling at me. He understood that I was frozen and trapped.

"Hello?" Pause. "No, we haven't seen them. Yes, of course. Feel free to come here and warm up. How far away are you? Five minutes, okay, we'll prepare some tea for you." He hung up the phone and wheeled around to look at us. "They didn't buy our act. We can call the police now but it might be a very long time before we get anywhere. We need to split you up this time; the bed won't work for long periods of time with so many of you. Two of you will have to hide elsewhere."

Splitting up seemed wrong, the opposite of what we should be doing, but I nodded. Henry and Whitney had been listening. I picked Maggie up, still with the blanket around her. "I'm taking Maggie." No one argued of course, but I felt the need to say it, to make sure they knew that she was with me.

I followed the farmer's wife to a spare room with a large, Narnia-like wardrobe. I climbed in, waking Maggie up as I did. I didn't want her waking up not knowing what was happening in the dark.

"Hey, they're coming, and we're going to hide in this wardrobe, okay?"

"Where are Henry and Whitney?" She looked around, confused and worried.

"Hiding under the bed, we might be here awhile and there isn't enough air for four down there."

"I don't think I like splitting up," she said, sounding worried.

"I know, I don't like it either, but it's going to be okay." The farmer's wife had closed the door, in the dark I couldn't see Maggie, but I felt better with her in my arms.

"I'm scared," she admitted, turning her face into my chest and shivering from both cold and fear. I put my arm around her shoulders, feeling through the blanket wrapped around her.

"You'd be a moron not to be." She was shaking, her teeth chattering very slightly. It worried me, I didn't like that she was scared. "Hey, hey, come on Mags, calm down, you're going to be okay."

We heard a loud knock at the door and fell silent. She tightened her hold on me and leaned her head against me, still shaking slightly. I couldn't see her, but I knew she would look scared.

This began a several-hour long sit-in in the wardrobe. Maggie fell asleep a couple times, only to wake up suddenly from nightmares. Sometimes she would make noises, and I would have to cover her mouth with my hand and shake her awake to get her to stop, which I hated because it scared her.

Often when she was asleep I wondered about Whitney and Henry, hoping they were okay.

Finally, after a long time, I heard two sets of footsteps heading to the doorway. At first, I was relieved, but then frightened as I wondered why someone was coming for us if they were still in the house, looking for us. I understood then that it wasn't the farmer or his wife, but either William or one of his friends. I picked Maggie up, making sure she was still wrapped in her blanket, and tucked her behind me, as far from the door as I could get her. If it had to be one of us, it would be me, not her.

The wardrobe swung open, and William and one of his friends were looking in at us. His assistant yanked me out of the wardrobe, and William grabbed Maggie. William stuck something a few inches from my nose. "Do you know what this is? It's a poison, extremely deadly." He stuck the needle into Maggie. "Look, boy. We have about an hour until that kills her. Either cooperate, come with me silently, and I'll give her the antidote, or I'll leave you both here and she dies. Understand?" I nodded.

His assistant pushed me through the window and then led me over to the car, shoving me in the back seat and putting Maggie on my lap. He locked the doors and they climbed into the front seat and drove off. I looked at the light fading from the house and wondered if I would ever see Henry or Whitney again. Then I concentrated on timing Maggie's breathing. It seemed slow, but steady.

As their house came back into view, I felt panic rise in my chest. How did I know they would give Maggie the antidote? She kept making strange sounds, as if she was in pain, and I felt my heart seize every time she did.

They pushed us into a different room than before and William injected Maggie with a different needle. She became still. Risking speaking, I asked "Does that fix the fever you gave her, too?"

William laughed. "No." He walked away, leaving the room still laughing. I was still holding Maggie and sat on the floor, leaning against the wall. She woke up a little and looked at me.

"Jasper, why are we here again?" she asked.

"He caught us. He gave you poison and I had to come or he wouldn't give you the antidote."

"You should have, you should have just let…just let me…" she started, unable to finish.

"No! Of course I wouldn't. I wouldn't do that to you, Mags."

"It's too cold in here," she said, tugging at the sleeve of her shirt, sounding somewhat agitated. It was strangely warm in the room, and I touched her head carefully.

"Your fever is getting worse," I told her, my hand heating against her forehead.

She shrugged. "It's okay, I'll be fine." She smiled a little, but it was obvious that her head hurt.

"I worry about you," I said. "Every time I think I've gotten you safe, something happens."

She pushed my hand away. "It's okay. I'm just tired. I have to go to sleep." She curled up in a ball and went to sleep. I leaned farther against the wall, falling asleep myself.

Later, when I woke up, William was back in the room. "How are you doing, Jasper?" he asked, kneeling in front of me and smiling. I started and backed away from him, picking up Maggie with me and dragging her to keep him away from me. He couldn't touch her. I wouldn't let him.

His eyes filled with a murderous flame. "I said, 'how are you doing, Jasper'" he snarled through gritted teeth. He shoved his face closer to mine, so that his nose was almost touching mine.

"Fine, thank you," I said quietly, my heart pounding fast enough to make me feel extremely sick.

He laughed. "I got control of you again," he said, sounding insane rather than angry. "I win."

I felt my stomach turn and thought about throwing up. This guy was so sick it was frightening.

"Can I see your hand?" he said gently, gesturing to my broken hand. "Please?" I handed him my hand. He squeezed down on it, making me that much closer to vomiting. "Stand up," he commanded. I stood, trying to not to cry. "Step away from her," he said.

I froze, refusing to step away from Maggie. "You'll hurt her."

He pushed down on my hand some more, and I did throw up. "I said, 'Step away from her', you idiot. Listen to me or I'll shatter your hand. Just step away from Margret for a little bit."

I remained stationary and he pushed me into the wall, and I fell over. I realized I was lying on top of Maggie, but it didn't bother me. I felt like I was protecting her. William left the room, laughing.

"Jasper," Maggie whispered. "What happened?"

"Nothing, it's fine. I fell and hurt my hand."

"Don't lie to me. I was awake," she said, beginning to cry. "Why won't they just leave us alone?"

"I don't know, Mags. But Henry and Whitney will find us. They will, you know Henry."

She didn't say anything else. Cradling my broken hand, I waited in silence for the end, either rescue or death.

"Anything but this," Maggie whispered, as though praying.

She was thinking the same thing.


	36. Chapter 36

Chapter Thirty-Six

**I know it's impossible, but I'm trying to make up for all the updates that you've been missing since I have lost access to the internet. It's Winter Break right now, so hopefully I can give you some updates before school comes around, because then just a few weeks later, it's Final's Week, and I'm going to be really busy with the studying and trying to make sure that my brain doesn't need to be resuscitated, like it does during most of my tests (I can sometimes get a bit of test anxiety.)**

Henry's point of view: 

Whitney and I could hear sounds of panic and worry from our position inside the bed. The door opened and closed many times, so we knew that everyone had left, and it was just the farmer and his wife running around. "Jasper, Maggie?" called the farmer's wife, opening and closing doors. I understood why they were panicking, and sat up as best I could as I tried my best to lift up the mattress. However, it was too heavy and I didn't have enough room, so I sank back down next to Whitney.

Whitney coughed as a little bit of dust fell from the underside of the mattress and landed on us. "We could bang on the wood," she said, and began to tap on the wood with the knuckles of one of her hands. I joined her, and there began to be quite a lot of noise. We heard footsteps rush up to the bed.

The mattress yanked off from over us, and we were flooded by light, which temporarily blinded us. Whitney stood up and immediately demanded to know where Jasper and Maggie were.

"We're not sure," the farmer's wife said. "We had them hide in the wardrobe, and we just looked in and they're gone. Wait," she said, putting her hand to her forehead. "No, no," she whispered.

"What?" I demanded in a voice sharp out of panic. "Do you know where they are? Please!"

"William, he and one of his friends didn't leave through the door. I didn't notice at the time…and the window, the window was cracked open, and we never leave that window cracked."

"Oh God," Whitney said, leaning against the wall and sliding into a sitting position.

"No," I said quietly, shaking her head. "No, you're wrong. They must be still here." I ran down the hallway, coming into a room with a large wardrobe. I climbed in, pushing my way through the clothing in it, and searching through it, hoping to find them sitting against the walls. "Maggie! Jasper!"

I heard footsteps behind me and wheeled around to face Whitney, who had followed me into the wardrobe. There were tears in her eyes. "Henry, they aren't here. They're gone." She reached out to touch my arm, and changed her mind, pulling me into a hug. "We'll get them back, don't worry, Henry."

"I just can't believe…after everything they just get taken away. Every time I think we've gotten ourselves safe, something happens and someone is missing or hurt or just…gone again. It never ends."

Whitney gave me a small smile. "Isn't that what living around Henry Griffin is all about?"

I pulled away from her, horrified. "Is this all my fault?" I demanded. "Is this because of me and my family? Is that why we're never safe, because of me? It should be me, not them, Whitney!"

"No! No, it's not. This isn't your fault. It's the fault of horrible, horrible people who have had it in for Maggie since before she even knew you, and you and your family have been mixed up in it when you accidently bumped into some of their friends and made them made. It's not your fault."

"We have to go get them, Whitney." I jumped, remembering. "Have they called the police?"

"Yes. They called the police, but it's going to take them awhile to get here because there is so much snow and ice." She turned to me. "Henry, we can't just run in there and go get them."

"Why not, Whitney," I demanded. "That's how we got Maggie, and that worked. No police helped us; we got her out all by ourselves." I realized I was shouting, but I didn't care. I was frustrated.

"Mostly by luck," she countered. "We had help, and we've been captured twice. They're not going to be nearly as careless this time, Maggie is important to him; they aren't just going to leave her outside knowing that we're around and could go get her. There has to be a bigger plan here, Henry."

"He's been trying to kill her since she was a little girl, though. Who's to stop him now?"

"Jasper is looking out for her," Whitney said, looking concerned. "Henry, calm down, please."

"Jasper has a broken hand. And what if they aren't together, what if they are separated again? Whitney, I'm not trying to be stubborn, but we can't just SIT here and wait. They…" my voice shook, which I hated, but I couldn't help it. "They could be dead by now, Whitney. They could really be gone."

Whitney looked at me like she was going to cry again. "I know, Henry. But we can't do anything else. We're stuck. Don't worry, the police are coming and they'll get them, we just have to wait, okay?"

I sat down, still in the wardrobe. "Okay. But, I…I hate this," I admitted. "I want to help them."

"I know," she said, sitting down next to me. "I want to help them too." She put her arm around my shoulders and leaned her head against the shoulder closest to her, comforting both of us.

"I've always been able to do something…I've always been able to at least try, Whitney. It didn't always work, but I could always try, and sometimes I would get lucky and we'd have a miracle, like when Jasper got the fever, I didn't think I would…but I did, and he was fine…" I was beginning to babble.

"Shh," Whitney whispered. "It's okay." We were quiet for a bit. "Happy Christmas Eve, Henry."

"Jasper and I were talking about having a Christmas party before all this," I admitted.

"Maybe after this is all over," she said, sounding sad. "It would be a good break from this mess."

We sat in silence for a little bit longer, before we heard a car pull up in the driveway. Grabbing her hand, I stood up and ran out of the wardrobe, down the hallway, and up to the front window to see who was at the driveway. The red-and-blue sickeningly spinning lights of a police car greeted us, and I felt a huge smile grow on my face despite the obnoxious sound that I hated so much.

The policemen left the car and came up to the front door. I opened it up right before they touched the door in my eagerness to see them and have them begin to help us find Jasper and Maggie.

The policeman immediately at the door seemed shocked to see us; he recognized us immediately as the missing children and smiled with the joy of finding us safe. Then they seemed to realize that something was wrong, that he had only found two where four should have been.

"Henry, Whitney?" asked one of the policemen. They came into the house quickly, looking us over. "Henry? Whitney? Where is Margaret and Jasper? I thought I was told that all of you were here."

"We were," I said, the smile slipping from my face. "Jasper and Maggie were recaptured. We think they are back where we were, in the house?" I looked at them, pleading for understanding.

Their faces fell, but they tried to look untouched by fear. "Well, it's good you're here. We'll go get Jasper and Maggie now. Can you tell us about the building you think they are in, and the people?"

They took notes as Whitney and I relayed everything we could think of, and then we waited in patient-yet-worried silence as they discussed their plan for retrieving our friends.

"Okay," they said, turning to us and trying to be as kind as possible. "We have our plan. And we are going to try to go get them. We have more back-ups coming, and we'll wait for them to arrive."

"And as for us, what will we do?" Whitney asked. I felt her heart pound from her palm to mine.

"You'll need to stay here until we can take you home. It will be safest for you."

Whitney squeezed my hand. "We can't stay here. We can't just sit here. You don't understand what this has been like, going to die any second, never knowing what is happening to anyone else, always in the dark about everything, always waiting to know, unable to do anything. You don't know."

Her voice cracked, and I took over. "Please. Just let us be there," I pleaded. "Let us come."

They agreed very reluctantly, unsure that they wanted us there in case things got violent, but eventually decided that maybe it would be best to have us there anyway, seeing as we knew the terrain.

Whitney and I loaded ourselves into the back of the police car, frightened but glad to at least be coming. Whitney leaned against me, looking out the window at the snow. "Do you think they're okay?"

"I hope so," he said. The policemen were back in the car, beginning to drive us towards the house. The car slipped and slid against the snow, going far too slow and turning around a couple times.

We finally arrived. The policemen prepared to leave, locking the doors so that no one would get to us. "Stay down," they commanded, "and no matter what happens, stay in the car."

We nodded and they left, guns drawn, fear on their faces, beginning to surround the building and disappear into the darkness. Whitney and I waited for what seemed like years, and nothing happened. There were no sounds, and we couldn't wait any longer, the silence was choking us. I knew Whitney felt the same without asking, it was obvious in her eyes.

Taking her hand, I cracked open the door of the car, allowing the cold air, mixed with snow to come flowing in. Pushing it farther open, I stepped out into the snow, allowing my feet to sink into the snow. Whitney fell in behind me, and we shut the door nearly silently, so that it swung shut with a nearly inaudible click. Before the sound had even dissipated, we had begun to walk towards the building. To death or success we knew not, but still we walked.


	37. Chapter 37

Chapter Thirty-Seven

**Writing words writing stories writing, write, wrote, writ, words, the words, are written, words, words, words-wordy-words, stories, tales, seconds, dripping, dripping seconds, stories, Dripping Seconds, okay, okay, enough with this rambling.**

**Hey! How are you? How did you like the last chapter? Was it emotional enough? Show enough of the connection between Henry and Whitney? Did it have enough suspense? I hope so. I liked it, but it felt really weird, like I wasn't quite writing it the way I did the last few, but I think it was good anyway. I hope this chapter is good too; there will be quite a bit of action going on.**

Maggie's point of view:

Jasper and I sat in silence for awhile, staring at the solid stone walls of our room. I knew it wasn't the same room as before because it was so much smaller, it was hardly more than a closet. It was all that we could do to try to avoid Jasper's vomit. Not that I blamed him for throwing up. I would have to, had they hurt me like that. I did when Jasper picked me up right after my head had been reinjured, so I knew what he was feeling. But still, I didn't want to sit in his vomit. That's disgusting.

After awhile my fever began to get worse and I became really tired and confused. I wondered if part of it was dehydration, as I hadn't been able to drink or eat much in awhile, just some tea back at the house when we were safe. It was only a few hours ago, but it felt like a lifetime.

I turned to Jasper, speaking for the first time in a bit. "Jasper, how's your hand doing?"

He moved his fingers slightly and winced, going pale from the pain. "Not great," he admitted.

"I'm sorry," I said. I stood up to go to the door and stumbled, slamming my shoulder into the wall. "Ouch," I hissed, and walked back over to Jasper. "Well, the walls are solid."

He smiled a little, amused slightly by my joke, and then stiffened as we heard the door open.

"How are we in here?" William asked, his voice teasing. I shrank against Jasper, wishing they hadn't taken my blanket from me. I clutched his arm tightly to me, doing my best not to look afraid.

William stepped all the way in. "Stand up," he said, gesturing to me. I stood, reluctantly. "Come here. You will do it, or I shatter his hand." I walked over to him, frightened. "You will be silent. Are we understood?" I nodded, catching Jasper's eye and pleading with him not to do anything stupid.

Someone suddenly came up behind me and jammed something over my head. I couldn't see, and I struggled for a few seconds, trying to clear the darkness from my eyes. My attacker demanded I calm down, and hit me a couple times, just missing my nose, to make his point clear. When I quieted down, he removed the cloth from over my eyes and pushed me over so that I was sitting on the floor.

"That," said William sternly, "is why you don't cross me. You do exactly what I say, and quickly."

I nodded, resisting the urge to touch my nose and check for bleeding.

"Now, stand up," he said. Despite my dizziness, I stood up, trying to avoid being hit again. "We're leaving," he told me, and Jasper stood up immediately, not breaking eye contact with me.

"You want to come too, Jasper?" he asked, surprised. Jasper nodded, still watching me.

A horrible feeling started in my stomach. "Jasper, don't…sit back down, please. Please, Jasper."

Jasper refused. "I'm coming. Where you go, I go, Mags." He tried to smile through his fear.

"Touching," William sneered, "but no such luck." He shoved me through the open door, and I hit the floor, banging my head and my cut-up arm on the stone. My vision blurred, but I didn't pass out.

"Maggie," Jasper yelled, and I heard a brief, painful sounding scuffle and then the unmistakable sound of human hands hitting human skin, and Jasper crying out in pain as they hit him.

"Stop it!" I shouted, sitting up. "Stop hitting him, please," I began to cry, much to my disgust.

The horrible sounds stopped, and I managed to stand back up. Jasper ran to me and hugged me. His nose was bleeding; I could feel it through my shirt. "Are you okay?" I demanded, whispering.

"Yes, I'm fine, it isn't too bad. Are you okay? I know you hit your head," he whispered back.

"I'm fine," I told him. "I'm just dizzy and my arm hurts where I fell." He tightened his hold on me.

"Well, this is sweet," hissed William, his voice horribly joyful. He grabbed onto my arm, and yanked me into a standing position. "If you are coming, Jasper," he challenged, "then come now."

Jasper stood up, much to my dismay. "Please, Jasper, don't. You'll get hurt. Please don't."

"I'm not leaving you," Jasper said stubbornly. "I'm not making you do all of this alone, Mags."

I felt my eyes fill with tears, and I couldn't say anything. William began leading me down the hallway, and Jasper followed. He reached to take my hand, but his guard yanked his arm back, separating us so that we couldn't hold on to each other. My head began to hurt worse, and I felt sick.

"Here we are, then," William said, opening another room and pushing me in, causing me to stumble and bang myself up again, only to have Jasper land on top of me and knock the wind out of me before the door was slammed shut behind us, extinguishing all light except that from a tiny lamp.

"Oh, Mags, I'm so sorry! Are you okay?" Jasper asked, scrambling off of me, much to my relief.

I gasped for breath, finding myself having a really difficult time getting my breath back.

"Mags, are you okay? Maggie? Come on," he said, shaking my shoulder. I coughed a couple times and sat up, trying to smile at him so that he wouldn't be worried about me. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, you just knocked the wind out of me, I'm fine. Why did he take all the time to bring us here?" I asked him, not expecting him to have an answer, but wanting to ask what I was thinking about.

"I think he's coming back," Jasper said, sounding nervous and a lot different due to the blood that was rapidly drying inside his nose. He seemed to notice and touched his nose, wincing as he did so.

"Don't touch your nose," I told him, grabbing his hand. I didn't let go, liking the feeling of holding his hand. He glanced at our hands and smiled. "I'm scared," I admitted, smiling a little myself.

"It's okay. I am too." We both stiffened as we heard footsteps come up to the door, and the sounds of a key rattling and turning in the lock just above our heads. I squeezed his hand, and he squeezed my hand back. "Shh," he said softly. "It's going to be okay, you'll be fine, it's okay."

The door came swinging open, just missing my head as we struggled to press ourselves against the wall in order not to be hit by the swinging door. "Get out, Jasper," William snapped, sounding deranged and furious, which was the scariest for him to be. I turned away so I didn't have to see his eyes, they reminding me too much of the poster and Daddy talking about how I should avoid him.

Jasper remained seated next to me, his arms around me. "Go, Jasper," I whispered, pleading with him once more. "Please, go this time." I gave him a small push away from me, and he stood reluctantly, exiting through the door. The door remained open, but William remained between us.

William Waingaurd, murder and deranged criminal, faced me and drew his gun, aiming it.

"No!" Jasper yelled, and there was a scuffle of someone holding him back. "No, Maggie!"

"Three years…three years since I got my last chance to kill you. And I had two chances, but I missed. Three years, third chance. Three is lucky, after all." He cocked the gun, smiling. "Three."

I stepped back instinctively, feeling my back press up against the cold stone walls. I tried to think of something to say, something brave to give Jasper hope or to be remembered by before I died, but the only thing that came out of my mouth was an accusation. "You killed my mother," I said, too loudly.

He stopped, lowering the gun ever so slightly. I could tell that he was confused. Going off on a whim, I continued my outburst. "You killed my mother! You couldn't even kill her yourself; you let a car do it for you." I said it with contempt, as though disgusted with him, and tried to conceal my shaking.

Instead of confusing him, I had made him angry. The gun shot back up into position, and his eyes narrowed into furious slits. "Shut up, Margaret!" He said, his hand tightening slightly on the gun.

I tried to calm him back down. "It was clever though…I always thought it was an accident."

"It was well done," he said, self-congratulating and letting his death-grip on the gun loosen a little. He smiled a bit, but his eyes were still insane. "I read the newspapers and I knew that I had won."

"When did you manage to do it? I thought we would be keeping a better eye on it," I said.

His eyes grew even more insane and furious once more. "No more talking!" he shouted. He aimed the gun at my shoulder. His hands were shaking. He was trying to hurt me, not to kill me. "No more talking! You will be silent! You will! I have been waiting for years, before you were born."

I understood that he was going to do it this time instead of putting it off and talking, that he was actually going to kill me. "Jasper," I whispered, wanting him to know. "Jasper, I-"

"I said no more talking!" William roared. He fired the gun, and I felt a horrible stabbing pain at the side of my head. The force knocked me backwards, and my head hit the wall, causing me to fall to the floor, feeling blood already beginning to creep through my hair. I noticed the darker shadow of William over my already shadow vision as he stood over me, and quickly shut my eyes. "It is finished," he said, not bothering to check for my pulse in his insane rage. "She has fallen and died."

I wondered if I was indeed dead, or dying. My vision faded behind my closed eyelids, and I was aware of shadow leaving and someone (Jasper?) replacing it. The door closed with a thump.

"Maggie? Oh God, no, no…Maggie, wake up! Please wake up!" It was Jasper. He was crying, I noticed dully, as though reading a book, not really connected. The pain in my head throbbed, but it didn't matter, because it wasn't really happening to me. I didn't try to move. I was observing.

"Please don't be dead, no…Maggie…please." I felt him lifting the girl on the floor up and cradling her against himself. "Please, Maggie, don't be dead. Don't go. Please." He was wrong. It wasn't me bleeding; it was someone else who I didn't know. My vision began to become deeper, darker, and I wondered if I, really me this time, was going to pass out. I remembered that it was me, that it was me who had been shot, who was bleeding, maybe dying, and panicked. I struggled against the feeling, grabbing blindly for Jasper's hand and squeezing it when I found it. He squeezed my hand back, relieved. "Oh, thank God, Maggie. Hey, you're okay; I think it just grazed you." He shook my shoulder gently. "Open your eyes, Maggie." I opened one eye, but it was dark despite the lamp."There we go."

"Dark in here…"I mumbled, struggling to focus my eyes. I touched my hand to the side of my head, and it became sticky with blood almost instantly. _Head wounds bleed easily_, I reminded myself.

"Ah-ah, don't touch it," Jasper said gently. "Come on, can you stand up for me? If we get closer to the light I can check to make sure it didn't hit you too badly." He was talking as though to a child.

I stood up and immediately swayed, the pain in my head becoming terrible. I leaned into Jasper, collapsing against him as the darkness became stronger, rising up and taking me down with it.


	38. Chapter 38

Chapter Thirty-Eight

**I really loved writing that last chapter for some reason. It was nice to finally do some emotional stuff between Maggie and Jasper. Too answer your question, Remus'Girl-Jaggie-Bade, yes, Maggie was going to tell Jasper that she loved him, but she didn't quite get the chance. **

Whitney's point of view:

You know you're friends with Henry Griffin if you're running around in the snow early in the morning on Christmas Eve looking for two of your friends who have been captured by a psychopathic mass-murder that has had it in for one of your friends since her childhood, and instead of waiting in the police car like you were told to, you are taking matters into your own hands. It was like living in a movie.

I couldn't help but have my doubts about what we were doing. "Henry," I whispered. "Do we have a plan?" If we didn't, I was stopping right there until we made one. Going into buildings full of mass-murders and accomplices without a plan is not one of those things I'm comfortable with.

"Yes, of course," Henry said, as though surprised I felt the need to ask. He turned to smile at me.

"Can I hear it?" I asked, glad that he was at least bothering to think about what we were doing.

"We go in, we get Maggie and Jasper, we alert the police that we have them safe, and we leave and go to the hospital to get all fixed up. After that, we have a Christmas Party!' He said, not seeming sarcastic at all. My heart sunk a little bit, still hoping that he was joking, but unable to believe it.

"Any more details, maybe?" I asked. "Like, for instance, how we are getting in?"

"I didn't really think about that part…I guess we just have to go with what we find," he said thoughtfully. "Don't worry, we'll be fine." The ease with which he said that worried me. But then I thought to myself, _Hey, it's Henry Griffin. He always succeeds, we'll be fine. _ I forced myself to relax.

We made it up to the front of the house, avoiding the sightline from any windows. "Okay, here is plan A," Henry whispered into my ear. "Jasper and Maggie left the building last time by climbing down a tree from an open window. If the window is still open, we can do the opposite.

"What if the window isn't open anymore? Then what do we do?" I asked.

"Then there is no harm done, we climb down and try somewhere else. Or break the window."

"Let's skip the window breaking," I said. "It would be too loud, and then they'd find us."

"Agreed," Henry said. We carefully walked as quietly as we could around to the side of the house, coming to face with the tree that Henry mentioned. I saw the problem immediately, and groaned inside. The closest branches were higher than our heads. "Now what," Henry whispered.

"Simple," I said, trying to remain calm. "You'll need to lift me up so that I can grab the branch and pull myself up. And then we'll pull you up. Okay?"

"Okay," he said, and made a platform with his hands. "Step on." I did, and he lifted me up until I could pull myself onto the branch. I felt all the good feelings of a working plan leave me at that point.

"Henry, I'm not sure how I'm going to get you up," I admitted, feeling like I was going to cry.

"Climb onto the branch directly above you." I did, wondering what he was thinking. Henry took several steps back and ran at the tree, jumping at the last minute and catching the branch that I had been sitting on. "Help me," he said, and I grabbed his hand, pulling him up onto the branch.

We were quiet for the rest of the way up, afraid that someone would hear and we would be trapped in the tree, unable to escape quickly. I nearly fell many times, but Henry always caught me.

Eventually we made it to the window, and found, to our surprise, that it was open. I hesitated before climbing back into the building. It felt like we were being captured all over again.

Henry and I froze as we heard the sound of footsteps going past our door. One set of footsteps were extremely light. Henry cocked his head slightly, leaning it to one side.

"What is it?" I demanded as quietly as I could, frustrated that I could never hear what he heard.

"One of the sets of footsteps is Maggie's," he said. He continued to listen. "Jasper too, and I'm pretty sure that the other two are guards. We need to sit here for the moment."

I bit my lip, frustrated both with the knowledge that our friends had been right outside the door and we couldn't help them, as well as the feeling of inadequacy that I was feeling. I felt useless.

"Hey, quit it," Henry said, taking my hand. "You figured out how to get you into the tree." Seeing my shocked expression at his mind-reading powers, he smiled. "You were talking aloud, Whitney."

"Oh, good," I whispered. "I was scared you had become psychic for a second there."

He smiled. "If only. Then I would read their minds and go and find them. Speaking of which, I think it's safe for us to leave the room now. He walked very carefully and silently over to the door and pressed his ear to it, listening intently. He looked at me and nodded carefully and I came over to the door. Henry rested his hand very carefully on the doorknob and pressed down, allowing the door to crack open very silently. There were no calls of alarm or answering gunshots. The coast was clear.

As we stepped into the hallway, I felt my heart begin to pound nauseatingly against my ribs, like a mallet on a drum. For a second, I very stupidly wondered if they would be able to find us by listening to my heartbeat. Then I shook my head to clear it. _If it was that loud, you'd be dead, dummy. Pull it together, Whitney. Focus. Come on, think of Maggie and Jasper. You're doing this for them._

Despite my little mental pep-talk, I found myself gripping onto Henry's hand like a lifeline. He squeezed my hand back, and I noticed he looked just as scared as I felt. That both comforted and worried me. Comforting me that I wasn't alone, but worried because one of us needed to have a clear head to be able to do this, and it sure as heck wasn't me, pep-talks aside.

I soon noticed that we could hear the footsteps of whoever we were following again. Henry yanked us into the nearest room to find, which turned out to be a bathroom. The smell was terrible, and I held my nose, wondering if anyone had ever taken the time to sanitize anything in the room.

Several sets of footsteps went past us, but luckily no one had to use the bathroom. I found myself holding my breath anytime someone came near though, as though my breathing could give our hiding spot away. Finally, there was a time when no one was walking by, and Henry listened at the door.

"We can go now," he whispered, cracking the door open. I followed him out of the room, thankful for the smell to finally be leaving my nose. We continued along the hallway.

One of the doors we passed by seemed familiar. "Henry, I think this is where we were last time."

"Yeah, this is the room that we were in when we were captured," Henry agreed, looking at it distrustfully.

"Do you think that they are in there?" I asked hopefully. Maybe we could be leaving in seconds.

"No, using the same room as last time would be too obvious. I think they are smart enough to know that if someone came, that would be the first place they would check. Good thought though."

I sighed in disappointment, and Henry gave me a small smile. "We'll find them. Don't worry."

I was worried though, very worried. "What if they aren't in this building?" I asked, being to lose my mind. "What if they're somewhere else, like that first place where we found Maggie?"

"I'm not convinced that they are all separate places yet, Whitney." Henry said. "I think that the room we were in earlier just happened to have wood floors. Those woods to the side looked extremely familiar." He squeezed my hand. "I know, this is really scary, but you have to calm down."

From what seemed to be a great distance away, there was a shout. Henry became stiff. "That's Jasper," he whispered, his eyes huge and full of pain. "That's Jasper…"

"What's he saying," I asked, having been unable to catch the words.

"I'm not quite sure," he admitted. "But I think he yelled 'Maggie.'" The realization came to us at the same time, and we took off running towards the sound of the shout.

Before we made it to the room, though, there was the unmistakable sound of gunshot. I froze for a second before Henry turned instinctively and pulled me in the opposite direction. Without stopping, he pulled me all the way back to the room, back to the window, into the tree and down the tree so that we were resting up against it. From inside the building, we could hear another bang. I prayed it was stone on stone, but I couldn't be sure. Henry was squeezing my hand so tightly that it hurt. Only then did I realize he was crying.

"They're gone," he whispered hollowly. He pulled me to him as tightly as he could, as though assuring himself that I was still there, that I was still with him. "They're gone, Whitney."

I didn't say anything back, I was too busy crying, trying to be quiet but unable to.

"I would have gone in there," he whispered. "If it was just me, I would have gone in so they wouldn't have to just lie there…so that we could have a funeral, I would have gone in immediately. But I couldn't…I can't lose you too. The policemen will, but you know…you know I would have?"

"Yes, I know," I whispered into his shirt, knowing he would hear me, that he always could.

And that's how the policeman found us, sitting against the tree holding onto each other like lifelines and crying into each other's borrowed shirts. "I know," he said, helping us to stand up and loading us into his car, driving us back to the house where the farmer and his wife waited with endless cups of tea and kind words. "We'll arrest them for what they did, don't worry."

"Funeral?" I choked out between sobs. "Can we…?"

"Of course, we'll retrieve Jasper and Maggie, don't worry…"

As the farmer and his wife came out to lead us back into the house, I looked over my shoulder at the policeman. He was crying too.


	39. Chapter 39

Chapter Thirty-Nine

**Did I give you all a scare? Just remember Whitney's thought "I prayed it was stone on stone, but I couldn't be sure" in response to the second bang that they heard before you freak out too badly.**

**Thank you to everyone who has been reviewing on this story! I can't remember how many reviews are mine, but in total there are probably well over a hundred and fifty reviews from readers. As a side-note, I would like to say, with much joy, that this story is over 60,000 words. The next milestone is 100,000 or Chapter Fifty if I continue this story long enough. It might be wrapping to a close though unless I try some massive plot twists…..either way, you'll see.**

Jasper's point of view:

That first second when I heard the gun go off, my heart stopped. It seemed to take hours for the sound the fade, for the pieces of broken stone to finish clattering to the ground. And when they finally did, I found that my heart was still breaking inside my chest. I couldn't make a sound.

My brain was on hyper-drive and I, for a moment, noticed every single thing. William stood over Maggie, who had her eyes closed. "It is finished," he said, gloating over her death. "She has fallen and died." Stepping back he pushed me back into the room and slammed the door shut, sounding much like an echo of the earlier gunshot. I picked myself up off of the ground, shaking my head to clear it.

I ran over to Maggie and crouched down next to her. She looked so small and delicate. "Maggie? Oh God, no, no…Maggie, wake up! Please wake up!" I was crying. This couldn't be happening. After everything, she couldn't be dead. I picked her up very gently and carefully, not caring that there was blood all over me. I could hear myself pleading with her not to be dead, but it was as though I wasn't attached to myself, as though my mouth and my brain were not connected. I kept staring at her, hoping for a movement, anything that would show that she was still with me, that she was alive.

As though frightened, she suddenly reached and grabbed onto my hand and squeezed it. I squeezed her hand back, hardly able to breath for a moment. "Oh, thank God, Maggie. Hey, you're okay; I think it just grazed you." She didn't say anything back, but kept holding onto my hand. I shook her shoulder very gently; trying to make sure she stayed awake. "Open your eyes, Maggie." She opened one eye and looked around, seeming very confused. "There we go," I said, congratulating her.

"Dark in here," she mumbled. She seemed to be going back to sleep. She put her hand to her temple and pulled it away, seeming somewhat surprised at all of the blood.

"Ah-ah, don't touch it. Come on, can you stand up for me? If we get closer to the light I can check to make sure it didn't hit you too badly," I coaxed. She was taking awhile to respond.

Maggie stood and swayed. Before I could catch her, she collapsed into me and passed out. I picked her up before her knees could buckle and cause her to fall to the ground. I carried her over to the lamp and sat down, looking carefully at the graze where the bullet had hit her. It was deeper than I had thought, and blood had soaked all the way through her hair to her borrowed shirt, turning it red.

I very carefully tried to use the edge of my sleeve to clear the tiny pieces of rubble from the injury. However, she kept crying out whenever I touched it, so I stopped. I found myself beginning to cry again, furious that I couldn't do anything to help her, and that there was no end in sight.

Eventually I heard footsteps pound on the outside of the hallway, and the door fly open, hitting me in the shoulder when I didn't get out of the way quickly enough. "Alright, Jasper, the police are here! And you know what that means. It is now time to dispose of the evidence!" He aimed the gun at me, preparing to shoot us. The rage that had been bottling in me flew out and I ran forward, ramming into his chest with my hand and knocking the gun against the floor with a clatter. Pushing past him, I ran out into the hallway, distantly aware that I was hoping that Maggie's head bouncing against me wasn't going to cause her any damage to her concussion.

William was cursing behind us, and I heard him picking up the gun and firing it wildly. Stone shattered near my head, causing a large piece to fall and cut open my cheek, mixing Maggie and my own blood on my shirt. Another piece hit my foot, making it hard for me to remain running. I tried to anyway. The gun clicked into position again, and this time I felt a jolt of adrenaline surge through me as the bullet flew past the side of my head, almost hitting me as it had Maggie.

I burst through the front door and almost immediately collapsed into the snow, pressing my face into it to relieve the burning from where the stone had hit me. Someone was standing over me, I realized eventually. "Jasper," said the voice. "Jasper, are you alright, son?" I tilted my head up slightly to see a policeman standing over me. "Jasper, come on." He grabbed me under the arms and helped me walk over to the car. I looked to see one of the assistants being arrested, and couldn't help but smile.

"We figured you were dead, Jasper," the policeman said. "We heard the gunshot. Henry and Whitney are positive you were dead." Then he noticed my shirt, soaked in blood from Maggie's injury. "Oh my God, what happened to you?" He demanded. "Have you been hurt?"

"Not me, really," I said. "Maggie. They shot her, it grazed her head and she's been bleeding everywhere. This is almost all hers," I said, gesturing to the shirt.

The policeman called into the radio in his car for an ambulance. From the sounds of it, they had one waiting at the house in case something went wrong arresting William and his friends. Soon enough, the ambulance roared up, and two medics rushed over to our car. They opened up the door near me and carefully picked up Maggie, placing her very gently on a stretcher."Don't take her," I pleaded. "Please, don't take her away. I don't want you to take her away." The medic smiled gently and removed my hands, seeming shocked at how swollen my broken hand was.

"Your poor hand," she said gently, and then glanced at the ambulance. "Okay, I need you to remain calm, okay? I have to take her to the hospital, and you need to go back and get your two friends and then come to the hospital and I'll take a look at that poor hand of yours. Okay?" I nodded numbly and they began to carry Maggie to the ambulance.

"Take good care of her," I yelled after them. "I love her!" They had reached the ambulance and were loading Maggie in already. She seemed small in between them. I watched until the doors were closed, until I couldn't see her at all anymore before collapsing into the seat, exhausted.

"How long has it been since you had a full night of sleep, son?" The policeman asked, looking sideways at me. He couldn't begin driving me back yet; the ambulance was in the way.

I began to count on my fingers. "Not tonight, last night no, before that I was unconscious for part of the day, the night before that I slept a little, the night before that I don't remember…" I said, noticing that my voice mushy and confused. The policeman was staring at me oddly.

"How on earth are you still awake?" he asked, curious and concerned.

I shrugged, blinking a few times. "Adrenaline I guess."

"Do you want to go to sleep now?" he asked, finally beginning to move the car forward.

"No, I need to know if she's okay first," I said, realizing I sounded stubborn.

"That could be several hours, Jasper," the policeman said. He wasn't scolding me, just informing me. "And you haven't slept in a long time. Unconsciousness doesn't count. So it's okay if you do."

I didn't say anything back. I was beginning to cry, finally safe, finally away from it all, but unable to quite leave because Maggie wasn't safe yet. My hand hurt and I felt sick and weak, as though I had just done something extremely strenuous. Trying not to be too obvious, I wiped my eyes with my sleeve, regretting it as I too-late remembered the drying blood caked to my shirt. "I must look a mess…"

"Yeah, you kind of do," the policeman admitted. I began to laugh, hiccupping and crying hysterically. I continued for a few minutes before calming down and taking a deep breath. "Feel better?"

I nodded. "Yes, thank you." I moved my hand and a sharp pain stabbed through all the breaks. I hissed in pain, wishing that I hadn't punched the wall.

We pulled up at the house just as my eyes were beginning to shut. The policeman opened the door for me and led me up to the front door. The farmer's wife, looking very exhausted, took my hand and led me inside wordlessly. The policeman left to go back and help with the arrests.

"How are Whitney and Henry?" I asked, wondering just how worried they were.

"They're asleep now, they were inconsolable, they were sure you were dead."

I heard light footsteps going down the hallway and turned to see Henry staring at me, his olive-green eyes wide. "Jasper," he whispered, not a question but a statement. Whitney was following him, grabbing onto his hand, eyes wide at the sight of me. "Jasper…where is the blood from?"

"Maggie," I whispered. "The bullet grazed her. She's at the hospital."

Henry ran to me and hugged me tightly enough to squeeze the life out of me, beginning to cry as he did so. "We thought…" Whitney joined him, hugging me and crying as well. I was crying as well. We stood there, interlocked and missing a piece still, until dawn finally broke on the horizon.


	40. Chapter 40

Chapter Forty

**Hey, everyone! I'm going to be traveling for Christmas, and I won't have access to a computer, so I won't be able to update this story for awhile. But it will only be a few days, so you'll be okay.**

** This chapter is done from a variety of viewpoints (Jasper's and Maggie's). The reason for this is there is not enough in this chapter for two separate chapters, so I combined them. To make things easier, Maggie's part is third-person (because her thought process is not clear to say the least, I thought it would be easier to not see things through her eyes.) A marking of - will separate the different viewpoints. Also, the reason why Jasper couldn't be in the ambulance is mentioned very briefly in this chapter. In case you don't catch it, the ambulance was full due to an injury to one of the policeman, and since Jasper's injury, though bad, wasn't critical, they decided to have him wait.**

** Note: At one point during the story I have a moment that may, depending on who you are religiously, bother some readers. If it does, I'm very sorry. I'm not trying to sway anyone one way or the other for any sort of religion; I just felt it was good for this character in this moment. Thanks!**

Maggie regained awareness of the world while being loaded into the ambulance. Though she didn't hear clearly, and her eyes were shut, she was aware of some details. She knew that she was cold, that it was snowing, that her head hurt, and that none of the voices near her sounded like Jasper.

The absence of Jasper was what made her open her eyes. "Jas…" she mumbled, squinting.

She was on a stretcher. She was picked up and set down on a small bed inside the ambulance. Maggie realized that the ambulance was full; another policeman had been grazed by a bullet, in the leg rather than in the head like her. She felt frightened when she remembered that she had been shot.

Someone was standing over her, carefully pulling back her hair and inspecting the graze. She remembered touching it, noticing that it covered her temple, nearly reaching her hair line. The medic looked down and noticed that her eyes were open. Maggie tried to phrase her question. "Where," she asked. She stopped short, noticing that it hurt to speak, remembering that the graze was near her jaw.

"You are in an ambulance. You are being taken to the hospital. You are safe now," the medic said gently, misunderstanding the question. "Do you remember what happened to you?"

Maggie tried to nod and couldn't. "Jas?" she asked. She didn't like being alone.

"We couldn't have your friend in the ambulance. It's too crowded. He will be meeting us at the hospital later. I think I saw you nod. You need to hold still, you've been bleeding quite a bit. We're going to need to give you stitches when we get to the hospital. Please try to stay still for now."

Maggie remembered her blood spreading on Jasper's shirt when she had been awake, before she had passed out. She considered nodding but decided against it, instead falling immediately to sleep.

Jasper's point of view:

Soon after the sun came up, I spoke again. "Can we go to the hospital? I want to see Maggie."

"We have to stay here," Henry said, sounding exasperated, as though he wanted to be going too. "They want us to stay here until they are sure everything is under control."

Only a little bit after that, a police car came up, and the policeman came to the door. I opened the door to be greeted with words that almost instantaneously made my heart freeze up. "William Waingaurd escaped," they said, looking exhausted and furious. "We need to have you leave the area in case he comes back and tries to capture you again. Please get in the car."

I thought about asking as to how Maggie was doing, but I didn't think they would know so I got in the car silently. Henry, Whitney and I all sat in the back of one of the cars, feeling like we were being arrested but glad to be together. The other car went back to see if they could catch William.

When Maggie woke up again, she was being lifted up very carefully and carried. Someone was placing her very gently into a hospital bed, the type that had bars on the side. Her eyes were closed and she didn't know what was happening to her. Her arm brushed lightly against the cold metal, and she couldn't remember where she was or why her head hurt so badly. She began to panic and forced her eyes open, finding herself looking straight up at the sky. Snow was spinning and falling and she felt dizzy watching it. She wondered if she was going to throw up. She didn't want to go to sleep again.

She turned her head as much as she was able to, and looked at the bars of the hospital bed, struggling to understand what was happening. She didn't feel too scared anymore. She felt lonely, as though someone was missing, but couldn't quite remember who. She felt very tired, as though she hadn't just been asleep, but had been doing something very tiring. Her head hurt. She moved one hand, which was near her face, very carefully to the side of her head, and it came away bloody. Someone very gently set her arm back down near her face. They were speaking, she could see their mouth moving, but she couldn't hear the words. She closed her eyes to make the confusion stop and instantly saw William standing with the gun trained on her. Her memories came flooding back, and she felt terrified once more. She realized that she was missing Jasper, and couldn't remember where he was.

Her bed was being pushed into a building; she disliked the bumpy, jerky movements that caused her to feel extremely sick. She opened her eyes to see that snow was no longer falling on her. She could hear the soft, muffled voices of people talking around her, and beneath it all, her own heartbeat, pounding quickly against her ribs due to her fear. She tried to focus on inhaling and exhaling steadily.

She was aware of the smell of blood coming from the cut in her head. She wasn't sure if it was still bleeding. She abruptly got tired of lying down and tried to sit up and look around at what was happening, but found that she was too weak. Darkness swum up over her vision, and she felt terrified of it, more so than anything else. One of the people pushing the bed gently pushed her back down onto the bed. "Stay lying down, Maggie," they said. The words sounded like Maggie's ears were underwater.

They pushed her into a room and began attaching her to heartbeat monitors. The beeping of her monitor upset her, and she tried to remove the wires. They pulled her hands away, telling her to be still.

They left and another doctor came in. He looked at her head where the injury had happened. "Maggie? Are you listening to me? We need to give you stitches to stop the bleeding. Can you hear me?" Maggie didn't know why they thought she wouldn't. Her eyes were open, weren't they?

"Yes," she managed to whisper. The doctor looked relieved.

"Okay," the doctor said. He began preparing a needle of some sort. It looked suspiciously like an IV to Maggie. She became even more frightened then she was. She didn't want to go to sleep. She was scared that she wouldn't wake up.

"What..." she mumbled, gesturing slightly to the needle with one of her hands and trying not to be scared. The doctor looked at her and smiled as though to reassure her.

"It'll make you go to sleep. We want you to be asleep when we give you stitches because it is in your head. Here," he took her hand gently and put the IV into her arm. "You'll be asleep in a little bit."

Maggie didn't want to go to sleep. She tried to pull at it with her hands, but the doctor pinned her hands back down at her sides gently, combating her weak attempts to get free of his grasp. "No, you need to go to sleep so we can give you stitches. It's going to be okay. You won't be asleep long."

He turned away from her, and Maggie felt herself beginning to black out again. She panicked, closing her eyes and holding her breath, trying to make everything go away. She understood somewhere that she was being irrational, but she had to do something. She was frightened.

Her monitor began to beep as her heart rate began to change in reaction to her holding her breath. The doctor rushed over to her and began to panic, calling for oxygen down the hallway. Maggie felt herself slipping farther, took a breath, and sunk into blackness.

The police car had to go slowly on the icy roads, much to my dismay. The whole way there I bit my lip and clenched my fists, trying not to show the anger that I was feeling. I felt desperate, so I tried praying. I had never been much for praying ever since Mom and Dad separated and Mom was too busy to have me come see her. I prayed every night and God did nothing, but I tried this time.

"God," I whispered. "If Mom was right and you are there, please protect Maggie. She doesn't deserve to be hurt; it's not her fault this happened. Please keep her safe, God. Please."

Afterwards, I looked around. Henry was leaning against the other window, obviously asleep. Whitney, sitting in the middle, was still awake and rubbing at one of the scratches on her arm as though it was itchy. I put my hand over hers to stop her. She started, and turned to look at me.

"Sorry," she whispered, blushing bright red. I removed my hand and shook my head.

"Don't be," I said. I hadn't said very much since being rescued. I felt clamped up inside myself and very frightened, as if someone was behind every corner. I often found myself staring or crying without realizing it, which seemed like anything to be proof that I had lost my mind.

Finally the car made it to a larger, more traveled road, which of course meant that there was less ice and snow on it. The car began to go faster, much to my relief. I released my own death grip on my fingers and leaned back, trying to relax.

We pulled up to the hospital and I ran in, not caring that I was a sight and hadn't bothered to change shirts and was covered in blood. I raced up several flights of stairs, not caring exactly where I was going until I crashed right into a doctor. "Excuse me," I panted. "Do you know where Margaret Winnock is?" The doctor said no, they didn't, and led me down several staircases to what I recognized as the pediatric ward to another doctor who led me to a different room.

"Okay, Jasper," she said. "We need to take X-rays of your hand. It's obviously very badly broken." He handed me a clean shirt and the lead thing that you wear to protect you against the waves.

"No, you don't understand. I have to see Maggie. Margaret Winnock. She was brought in because she got shot and her head got grazed. I have to see her. Please."

"We need to get your hand fixed up first." The doctor yanked my shirt off and shoved the other shirt over my head, followed by the lead thing. She gently put my hand down on the table and told me to hold still. I felt furious again, but calmed down and allowed the pictures to be taken.

"Okay, Jasper. Your hand is in danger of setting incorrectly. We need to give you surgery to fix your hand." Seeing me open my mouth to protest, she added "You will be able to see Miss Winnock later." She led back along to a different room and gave me some clean clothing and told me to change and lie down. She left, saying she would be back. I changed and got down on the bed, allowing the doctor to come back and start the medication. I felt my eyes getting heavy, but I was not unconscious when I felt the bed being rolled forward. I opened my eyes and saw another bed wheeling past me on the other side of the hallway.

"Maggie," I whispered.

Then I blacked out.


	41. Chapter 41

Chapter Forty-One

**I am back from my trip! I hope you all had a nice holiday and will have a fantastic rest of 2010. I almost said 2009. I must be trapped in the past. Just remember that 2011 is the year of the mega wish (11/11/11). Maybe if we all wish 2012 won't come around and kill us. **

**This chapter will actually stick to one point of view. I know, amazing isn't it? It also will be the longest chapter I have written for this story so far by a long shot. Yay! A new milestone!**

** Blah blab blah. Okay. Back to work. **

Henry's point of view:

In time it took for the police car to slow to a stop in one of the parking spaces of the very crowded hospital parking lot so that we could exit the vehicle and go inside the hospital to follow Jasper, Whitney and I had begun to panic. We had _just_ gotten Jasper back after believing them dead, only to have him run out of the car. I understood how he must be feeling, but I needed to know where he was.

When the car finally slowed to a stop, the policeman left the car, and Whitney and I followed. He had to stand in a line for a long time to get to the front desk. I didn't see Jasper anywhere. The policeman wouldn't let me go off to find him. He wanted to keep an eye on us.

"Do you know where we can find Margaret Winnock?" Whitney asked as politely as she could when we finally made it up to the front desk. She had to talk a little bit too loud over the muffled roar of those, like us, who wanted to speak to the man behind the desk.

"I'm sorry, she's in surgery at the moment," said the man behind the desk after consulting his computer. She's supposed to be receiving stitches in her head after a bullet graze. If you go up to the pediatric ward you can wait for her. Is there anything else I can help you with?"

"D you know where Jasper Bartlett is?" I asked. "He came in not too long ago."

The computer was consulted again, this time taking several minutes. "Jasper Bartlett was given an X-ray on his hand due to several severe breaks. And…" he frowned in thought. "Ah…he's being prepared for surgery for his hand. You can go up to the pediatric ward to wait for him too." He smiled at us, as though trying to reassure us, and Whitney smiled awkwardly back.

"Thank you," I whispered, feeling my heart sink farther into my chest, deflating.

We walked to the elevator and pressed the 'up' button, waiting impatiently for the elevator. I took Whitney's hand and squeezed it gently. She was biting her lip nervously.

"Okay," the policeman said as we finally made our way into the empty elevator. "I'm to stay with you two until your parents show up. The roads aren't great, but we think they'll be showing up within the hour. By the way, Henry," he said, cracking a smile. "Your parents are in town. They are desperate to see you. You too, Whitney, your mom flew up when we noticed you were gone from the Winnock household. Your sisters are here too."

The elevator pulled up and we stepped out. I was smiling a bit despite my fear for Maggie and Jasper. The thought of seeing my parents again made me so happy that I almost forgot my stress.

We sat down in the waiting room and Whitney almost immediately dropped her head to her knees, clasping her hands behind her knees like Dad taught me too once when I was little after I got very dizzy just before my first time diving off of a high platform. Falling off the rock wouldn't have been good.

"Whitney," I asked, resting my hand lightly on her arm. "Are you okay?" She mumbled something into her legs that I didn't catch. "What?" I asked, being to feel very worried.

"I feel sick," she said without lifting her head. I managed to understand her this time

"Are you hungry?" I tried to think as to the last time we had eaten a full meal. I came up blank, which wasn't a good sign. "I bet you are hungry. Do you know when we can get some food," I asked the policeman. I didn't really like talking to him because he normally seemed very annoyed. I assumed he would rather be helping his friends catch William then babysitting two kids who he probably thought could take care of themselves anyway and didn't need him to hang over them. However, I would do it for Whitney because she wasn't feeling good. "We haven't eaten in awhile," I added so that my question would not seem out of the blue. The policeman stared awkwardly at me for a bit, so I smiled.

"We need to wait until one of your parents arrives. Then an adult can stay here and the other can go get you some soup." _Soup again, _I thought wearily, wishing I could have something a little more solid, but nodded and smiled. _I think I could eat a whole elephant, _I thought to myself, the joke making my smile a little bit more real. The policeman glanced worriedly at Whitney, who was leaning against me. She was sitting up at least, but she still didn't look so good. "Is she going to be okay," he asked.

"She's not feeling that well," I said, gently squeezing her hand. She squeezed it back, which helped me relax. "We haven't eaten very much lately, so she feels kind of sick and dizzy because of that. I don't feel that terrific either." The policeman still looked worried, so I added "I'm sure she'll be fine when we have something to eat. It isn't like we are sick or anything."

"Henry?" Someone asked. I looked up to see Uncle B. He sat down next to me and hugged me, which startled me. Uncle B had never been extremely open about his affection, even to his own son in the privacy of their own house. "Good God, Henry," he said, finally releasing me from the surprising display of affection and taking a look at me as though assuring himself that it was really me and not some random and very confused stranger. He confirmed it was me and sighed in relief. Hugging me: Semi okay, hugging a stranger: not in the least. "Are you okay? Do you know where Jasper is?"

"He's in surgery," I said, not wanting to scare him but having to tell the truth anyway because it was better for him to know where his son was even if he was scared for him. I saw his face fall as he began to panic and quickly tried to make the situation better. "He's getting his hand fixed. It's badly broken, but besides that he's fine. He's going to be okay, Uncle B."

Uncle B closed his eyes and clenched his fists for a moment in order to get his life back into control. He opened his eyes again. "Are you okay?" he asked again. I had never answered.

"Starving," I admitted as my stomach gave a room-shaking growl as it requested an elephant be delivered. I glanced around, hoping no one had heard it. "And I am also very, very tired."

"Do you want me to get you two some soup," he asked, glancing at Whitney and understanding, finally, why she was leaning against me looking somewhat dead.

"Yes please," I said gratefully. Uncle B left, and I awoke Whitney, who had managed to fall somewhat asleep. "Hey, Whitney, get up. Uncle B is going to get us some soup. Wake up, please." She blinked a couple times and stared blankly at me, which frightened me. "You okay?"

"My head hurts," she mumbled sleepily. I gave her a hug.

"Lean against me," I said, although she already had her head on my shoulder. "Just stay awake for now, okay? I want you to eat first before you go to sleep. Uncle B is getting us some soup."

She nodded. Just a few minutes after that, Uncle B came back with two thermoses of soup and handed them to us. They were warm, which made me happy. I thanked him and smelled it. It smelled better than I remembered from last time. "Where are my parents," I asked, before beginning to eat.

"They stayed home in case the police called us for any reason, because we weren't sure that you were all at the hospital. The information we were given wasn't clear, we weren't sure if only Maggie was here or all of you. I gave your parents a call though to tell them that you are here and safe. They are on their way over here, and they will hopefully be here soon. The roads aren't terrific but they hope to be here within an hour. Maybe even less, my sister isn't exactly a very calm driver."

I smiled; remembering a wide variety of family trips that almost ended in disaster when my mom grew fed up with traffic and took a 'short cut'. "She'll be here in a lot less than that even if she has to drive through people's backyards to avoid the ice." Whitney and Uncle B smiled.

A nurse came over to us, breaking us out of our happy moment and reminding us that we were in a hospital waiting for news about two of our friends who had gone into surgery. "Margaret is out of surgery and Jasper is going into surgery," she said with the practiced smile of someone used to dealing with hysterical family and friends. It was something I had learned to recognize on the face of every doctor, no matter where I was in the world. I didn't know what to make of it. It could be good or bad.

"How is she?" I asked, feeling a nervous feeling growing in my stomach as the nurse's smile became a little more forced. Jasper had already hidden inside himself when Maggie had been taking away, if something had happened it would kill him. He'd never come out.

The nurse re-fixed her smile and replied. "She did just fine during surgery. However, her concussion, as I'm sure you know, is very serious. We are worried that there could be complications if the area around the stitches becomes inflamed. It could put pressure on her concussion. However, for this moment she is completely fine." The nurse managed to say this and maintain a smile the whole time, which I thought to be an impossible feat. I stared at her with mild confusion.

Whitney took over for me. "Can we go see her since she's out of surgery?" Whitney asked. She grabbed my hand and shook it very slightly, knowing I had become distracted. I squeezed her hand back to thank her and managed to refocus myself. It _was _unnatural though.

"Not at this moment," the nurse said. "We need to monitor her for the time being." She smiled and left back into the hospital. I had to fight my instinctual need to run in and check anyway."

We were silent as we waited for Jasper to come out of surgery or the nurse to come back and say that Maggie was fine and we could go see her. Whitney fell asleep using me for a pillow. I felt my eyes grow heavier and heavier, reminding me that I had not gotten a full night of sleep in days, and I closed them, leaning my head on top of Whitney's and trying to relax. I dropped off.

I awoke to a loud sound. "Henry!" my mom said, rushing over to me. She flung her arms around me and hugged me, startling me out of my still half-asleep state. I got my brain working enough to hug her back, feeling calmer now that I had my mom back. Someone else could take control. I was done. "Henry, we were so worried!" she continued. "Are you okay?" Everyone was asking that.

"I'm going to be fine, Mom," I reassured her, smiling and pulling away before I was choked to death. "I'm just worn out and kind of hungry." I saw my dad standing over and looking over my mom's shoulder. I jumped up and hugged him too, tearing up very slightly as I did so.

I turned to see Whitney hugging her mom, her two little sisters dancing around, smiling and chattering rapidly in Russian. I caught a few words, but I couldn't understand most of it. They were happy. Whitney hugged them too, laughing as the littlest one pulled gently at her hair.

Mr. Winnock stood awkwardly by himself, standing slightly off to the side. He looked exhausted and nervous, the way I was sure my parents had been looking just minutes ago. He locked eyes with me. "She just got out of surgery. She's doing fine, they said," I told him. He nodded.

"What exactly happen?" Dad asked me. Whitney stiffened slightly. I grabbed her hand and squeezed as I explained about being recaptured and escaping and Jasper and Maggie being recaptured and the gunshot that we heard and the bang of the stone door on the stone wall and assuming it was another gunshot and they were both dead and going back and being scared out of our minds when Jasper walked in, covered in blood but very much alive. When I finished, everyone stared at me and Whitney sadly for a bit before hugging us again, telling us all how sorry they were.

"Your poor face," Mom said. "You're so scratched up." I touched my face, remembering all the small scratches I had gotten from hiding in the trees and all the other things I had been up to. "Are you hungry? I could get you something to eat if you want." She offered. My stomach growled, but I remembered what Dad had taught me about readjusting your stomach to food after not eating."

"No, its okay, Mom, thank you though. I just ate some soup. I don't want to overdo it."

"Of course," she said, seeming amused with herself. "Of course you don't."

Dad was talking to the policeman, thanking him for looking out for me and Whitney. The policeman smiled and shook his hand before he left to rejoin his group and search for William.

The nurse came back out, smiling at us. "Jasper's come out of surgery. He isn't awake yet, but he did beautifully. You can go see him if you want." I felt my heart rising as though full of helium.

"What about Maggie?" I burst out. She had been out of surgery for a long time. Why was no one telling us about her? I felt paranoid, sure for a moment that something had happened to her. It would kill Jasper. I knew it would. He would become a statue again. I was panicking.

Sure enough, the nurse bit her lip and her smile fell from her face. "Margaret Winnock's condition is very complicated. Outwardly she is healing just fine, but the bullet graze combined with the severity of her concussion she has received has made her very confused. We've had to keep her asleep because she's so easily distressed. We're running a MRI at the moment. You'll be able to see her soon, after we are done with the MRI. Would you like to see Jasper? He should be waking up soon."

I thought it would be best to let Uncle B see him first. However, he turned to me and Whitney. "Henry? Whitney? Would you like to come with me?" he asked. He smiled at me. I smiled back.

We agreed and the nurse led us down a hallway. When we got in the room, my heart sunk a bit as I saw Jasper. He looked very pale and his hand was heavily bandaged and immobilized. He was very deeply asleep, but didn't seem to be in any pain, which I was glad for.

Following Uncle B's lead, Whitney and I sat down to wait.


	42. Chapter 42

Chapter Forty-Two

**I am very into this story right now. I don't exactly know why, but updating is making me extremely happy. So do reviews. I haven't said this in awhile, so this is for all of you who don't have an account. My anonymous review filter is on, so even if you don't have an account, you can still tell me what you think of my story. This also goes for those of you who do have an account. (No flares please, though, I haven't gotten one yet and I would like, thanks, to keep it that way. Thank you!)**

**This chapter goes back to the two-person point of view. Jasper is in first person. Maggie is in third person. Maggie may seem extremely out of character. She's supposed to be. **

** Thank you for taking the time to read this! ~Synesti~ **

Jasper's point of view:

My eyelids were orange. The bright light above me was shining through my closed eyelids. I felt nauseated and annoyed. I couldn't remember where I was. Something of me was hurting, but I couldn't exactly remember what yet. I wasn't afraid. Scratchy sheets were surrounding me. Muffled voices were talking near me. I had been aware of them before the itchiness or the vague pain or the lights. They had never left me, though I could not understand what they were saying. Sometimes they spoke to me, and sometimes they seemed familiar. Sometimes they were very loud and I could almost understand them, and sometimes they were accompanied by someone taking one of my hands, always the one and not the other. Often the voices seemed very sad. I got the impression that I was sleeping for only short amounts of time, which was somewhat comforting. I wished I knew where I was. I felt confused.

I began to understand that I was in a hospital. The vague pain resided in my hand. I struggled against my tiredness to raise my not-painful hand to my nose and scratch it. It was itching terribly. I succeeded and then tried to scratch my sore hand, which seemed to be completely incased in something somewhat itchy. It felt like it might be bandages, but I didn't want to open my eyes. A hand grabbed my wrist firmly but gently and pulled it away from my bad hand, lying it down on the bed next to me. I flicked the hand, annoyed. I was greeted by a small laugh. "Are you awake, Jasper?"

I opened my eyes slowly, wincing as the light shined into them. Couldn't hospitals think of dimmer lights for patients who were waking up? I tried to shield myself with my good hand and gave up when my arm stubbornly flopped back onto the bed. "Hey, Henry," I said. My throat was dry and it hurt to speak, deciding to smile instead. My head ached for some reason, and I felt very thirsty.

"How do you feel?" Henry asked. He smiled back at me, but his eyes seemed worried. He glanced at my hand, which lay limply on the pillow like a dead thing. I was right. It was completely wrapped in bandages from my fingers to halfway down my lower arm. _So much for band practice, _I thought with a smile, enjoying the thought of not being nagged about my instrument for a few weeks at least before making up my mind to answer Henry's question.

"Tired and somewhat confused," I admitted. "My hand hurts, too, but that's not really surprising. It's very itchy." I looked around. "Where is Whitney? And how is Maggie? Is she up yet? I saw her when I was going into surgery, we passed each other." I glanced at Henry, trying to read his eyes.

"Whitney is sitting with her." Henry bit his lip in a very un-Henry like fashion. He glanced at the hallway a little and sucked in his cheeks as though nervous. I felt nervous myself.

"She isn't awake yet?" I demanded, feeling panicky. "But I'm up and I went into surgery later."

"Maggie has to stay asleep right now," he said, not looking at me. "Her concussion is making her very easily upset right now, which isn't good for her. They decided it would be best for her to remain asleep for the time being." Henry's teeth slid over his lips again and he puffed out his cheeks.

He was breaking it to me as gently as he could, but it didn't change what he was saying. "They are keeping her sedated." It wasn't a question. It was a statement. My heart hammered against my ribs and my vision grew blurry, as though I was about to cry. I blinked a few times and it stopped.

Henry nodded, finally able to look at me. He inhaled and exhaled a few times, too quickly for him. I realized he was trying not to cry too. I very carefully sat up and placed my feet on the floor. "Jasper," Henry said, wide-eyed. "What are you doing? You shouldn't be up yet."

"I'm going to see Maggie," I said bluntly. I couldn't understand the task of standing up though. I was too tired. Henry pushed me back down gently and carefully picked my bad arm up by the elbow and let it rest on the pillow next to my head. It hurt when it pressed on the pillow, but I said nothing.

"You need to stay still for now. You're not ready to get up yet. You were very dehydrated and you hadn't been eating normally, and you still haven't recovered. Go to sleep, Jasper. I promise I'll take you to see her when you are stronger. Right now just isn't a good time for you, okay?"

I decided not to try to fight him. I relented and drifted off into a black cloud.

_Maggie could barely breathe. Her face was numb, shoved in the snow. She was cold and couldn't breathe. Her hands were tied behind her. Idiot was talking to her, jeering at her in her ear. She took a gulp of snow air and screamed as loudly as she could, choking as the snow filled her lungs. _

Her eyes flew open. She was in the hospital. She couldn't breathe, she was trying. Everything was silent. Whitney was asleep in the chair against the wall of her room. Maggie's scream was inside her, it hadn't gotten out. She couldn't breathe; she was crying and couldn't make a sound. She was choking. She lifted her hand to her head and felt the bandages. _Why? _She couldn't remember. She carefully removed the bandages, crying silently as she did so. She felt the stitches in her head. _Why? _ She clawed at them, terrified, causing fresh blood to drip onto her cheek. She remembered a gun, only a gun. She could hear the bang echoing in her head, the sound fought with her scream that was still inside her, killing her with sound. She tried to get up, the choking was worse, her scream was choking her. She felt bruised and battered. She clawed at the wires that attached her to the monitor, releasing a few, then more, then all. A horrible beeping started and she screamed. She clawed at her eyes, breathing and crying and screaming. Whitney jumped up and grabbed her, forcing her to lie back down. She couldn't stop screaming, she tried and the sound wouldn't stop. Whitney shook her. "Maggie, stop it! Maggie!"

My eyes flew open again when I heard the loud, siren-like alarm followed by a long, drawn out scream that I recognized immediately as Maggie's ultimate cry of distress. _Maggie! _I sat up immediately, swinging my legs over onto the ground and pressing my feet against the floor, praying for them to hold so I could walk. Henry glanced at me but didn't argue, instead helping me to stand. We went down the hallway as fast as we could, Henry half-carrying me, and got to Maggie's room and flung open the door.

Maggie hated the beeping sound. It wouldn't stop. Someone had opened her door. It banged against the wall. The sound wouldn't stop. Nothing would stop. She grabbed at her ears, her hands coming away bloody. The screaming had stopped; she was out of air, choking again.

"Maggie, stop it! Maggie! Don't, it's okay. Shh." Whitney tried to pin her down, tried to keep her from clawing at her eyes or sitting up, tried to calm her down somehow. "Henry! Jasper! Help me!"

"Maggie, Maggie, shh," Jasper said. He pulled her upright and wrapped his arms around her, pushing down on her arms to make her stop. "You're okay…you're okay. Please stop." She felt moisture sink in through her shirt. He was crying. She tried to pull her arms away and then gave up, shaking.

"Jasper," she said into his shoulder. He stopped crying and instead squeezed a little too tight.

"Hey," he said, holding her at arm's length and looking at her, checking to see if she was finally with him. "Hey, Mags, are you okay? You were scaring us pretty badly there."

She shivered, trying to smile. She was still sobbing, she hadn't figured out how to stop yet. Her vision blurred and she leaned over and threw up over the side of her bed, just missing Jasper. It was all bile. She hadn't eaten in forever. She continued to shake and collapsed back down, allowing herself to lie back down and wipe at her eyes with her hands. A doctor had rushed in. The beeping had stopped.

Jasper was still talking to her. "Maggie, you're okay. I think you had a nightmare, but it's over, whatever scared you isn't here. Okay?" She nodded. "What scared you, do you remember?"

"Choking," she whispered. "Idiot…choking, the snow," she ran her eyes up and down his face, distracted from her crying from the time being. She pleaded with him to understand. "Before…together," she added. She felt like screaming. She couldn't tell him what she meant. "Please."

His eyes lit up as he understood what she was saying. "When you were alone? And they choked you?" he asked. He seemed angry when he remembered. She began to cry again and nodded. "It's okay," he said desperately. "It's fine. They aren't here. It's just us; you're going to be just fine."

A doctor was taking her hand gently, he was preparing a needle. She yelped, not the screaming sound, just a fearful one, and pulled her hand away so hard that she smacked herself in the chest, managing to catch one of the million bruises that she was covered in. She stared at the doctor, not trusting him. The doctor smiled back. "You need to go to sleep for a little while, okay Margaret?"

"No, no, no! I don't want to sleep, I don't want to sleep. I don't. No. Please!" She began crying, and Jasper gently took her arm and held it still. The doctor stabbed the needle into her arm, and she flinched, trying not to scream. Jasper rubbed her shoulders gently. She was already worn out from her panic attack, and was ready to fall asleep already. She leaned forward against Jasper. "Tired," she mumbled. He pushed her down so that she was lying all the way down. The doctor backed away. She looked around the room a few times, seeing if it was safe, decided it was, and closed her eyes.

I couldn't believe that she had been like that. It just wasn't Maggie. I hadn't seen her anywhere near that since her mother was killed. I turned to the doctor, who waited in the hallway. "Why was she like that?" I demanded. I still hand my hands on her shoulders from when I was worried she'd get up.

"That isn't really her," he said gently. "She was very scared, I think she had a nightmare, and she isn't reacting properly to what she is seeing and hearing. We think that as her concussion heals, she'll be more like herself again." He came back over and checked her stitches. "She managed to get the bandage off her stitches and caused them to bleed a little." He inspected the stitches carefully.

Another person was coming in and cleaned up Maggie's vomit. The doctor was still inspecting her stitches. It seemed to hurt, but she didn't awake, though she did make small sounds of discomfort occasionally. Henry and Whitney had backed away and were sitting in the chairs against the wall.

"Okay, I think her stitches are just fine. She only scratched a scab. Jasper, you shouldn't be out of bed," he said slightly reproachfully, but smiling a little anyways. I felt myself turning red and held to Maggie's hand. I wanted to be there if she woke up and was scared again. He laughed. "Let me check your hand. If it seems to be fine, you can stay with her." He gently took the bandages off my hand, which was swollen and bruised to purple-blackness. "Can you move it at all?" he asked. "Does it hurt?"

I tried to open and close my hand and succeeded, wincing. My grip was very weak though, and I couldn't pull my fingers against my palm. The doctor seemed pleased though.

"Good, that's very good. Your grip is weak, but you can open and close your hand. It will come back in time. Okay, I think you are just fine, I need you to rest your hand and try not to scratch it."

I asked how long she would be asleep for. The doctor said he didn't expect her to wake up for about two hours because he hadn't wanted to give her very much. I nodded, just glad that I could stay with her. The doctor left and I pulled up a chair, sitting down next to her. She looked a lot calmer now that she was asleep. I felt terrible; it wasn't her fault she had become so upset, recalling a time in my life when I had had reoccurring nightmares. Dad would have to come in every single night and pick me up and carry me for awhile, much like Mr. Winnock had done for Maggie when she was having a nightmare at her house, and when I would wake up I would practically punch him in the nose, still trying to escape from whatever had scared me. They called them Night Terrors. Probably from the stress of Mom and Dad separating, the doctors figured. And it stopped eventually. But it was terrifying while it lasted, and I could only imagine how scared Maggie must have been if it took medication to calm her back down.

Eventually I felt the rest of the anesthetic kick back in, I hadn't had time to let it all wear off yet. I put my head down, right next to Maggie's shoulder, and closed my eyes. Her hair tickled my face, and I thought I was going to sneeze, but I fell asleep instead, too tired to do anything else.

Maggie slid her eyes open, wincing as the light shined into her eyes. She felt calm for some reason, and wondered if it was medication. Something warm was leaning against her shoulder. She turned her head very slightly, wincing as it caused pain to shoot across the side of her head. Jasper was leaning, apparently asleep, against her shoulder. She smiled and decided to let him sleep.

She looked around, wondering if anyone else was nearby. She saw a shadow moving across the wall directly across from her as though it was pacing. It wasn't Whitney's, she knew that for sure. She went out on a limb, hoping it wasn't yet another doctor who would put her to sleep again. "Henry?"

Henry, sure enough, came over to the side of the bed. "Hey, Maggie," he said softly. "How are you doing?" He noticed her squinting at the light and put his hand in the way, creating irregular shadows that crisscrossed over her face, improving things only very slightly. "Better?" he asked, smiling.

"Yes, thank you," she whispered, smiling back. She coughed and felt a splitting pain to my side that had been hovering underneath the pain in my head. "Ah," she hissed, putting one hand to her side.

"You okay?" Henry demanded, moving his hand and allowing the light to shine with full force back into her eyes. She didn't mind, she was too busy trying to breathe without causing herself pain.

"Yeah, I'm fine, thanks." He was still staring at her, very concerned. "Look, Henry. I'm not going to go insane on you again, I promise." She sat up, propping herself up on her elbows to look around and promptly sunk under a wave of darkness as a line of pain sliced open her temple.

"Maggie!" Henry said loudly, shaking her. She opened my eyes and grimaced.

"Sorry about that. I don't think I'm ready to sit up yet," She whispered. Her head worse now, it hurt when she opened my mouth. She was lying down; Henry had laid her back down when she fainted.

"No kidding!" he said, lowering his voice. Jasper was amazingly still asleep. "You are staying lying down, okay?" He looked so freaked out that she couldn't argue with him, and she agreed.

Jasper opened his eyes sleepily, and she was glad that he had missed the "Oh no, Maggie passed out!" moment of just a few moments earlier. "Hey, Mags," he said sleepily. "How are you doing?"

She opened my mouth and winced. "Not the greatest," she whispered. "Hurts to talk."

"Don't then, its okay," he said, squeezing her hand with his uninjured one. Seeing the bandage on his hand momentarily brought back her panic from earlier, but she bit her lip and took a few deep breaths, managing to calm herself down. Having him near her helped, she didn't feel as scared when she remembered that both of them had survived what had happened.

She smiled at him. She felt tired again, much to her disappointment. Squeezing his hand back, she closed her eyes, preparing to go back to sleep. _We both survived. We're okay now, we're together._


	43. Chapter 43

Chapter Forty-Three

**Thank you for your reviews! Some of you have been posing a few questions about all this (which I appreciate, because it keeps me on track so you can understand me and my story isn't a hopeless babbling. That would be very sad, luckily I haven't seen any UH stories go that route.)**

**By the way, I recently heard the horrible news about our show being cancelled. My television doesn't have Cartoon Network, but I caught a few episodes and watched some of the other ones on Cartoon Network and got hooked just like the rest of you. I really hope CN will rethink its decision. **

** This chapter is in a one-person point of view. The two-persons are more difficult than I thought they would be, so I will be sticking for one-person-per-chapters for awhile. Also, I have decided that my next story, after this story is over, will be a Henry x Maggie story. Sorry to the Jasper and Maggie fans out there, but I think I need to try both to decide what I like best. ~Synesti~**

** After writing it, I noticed that it's also, by far, the longest at over four thousand words. I might want to think about starting to write shorter chapters. Are they getting too long to read? Let me know, please. Okay, I've talked enough. Have fun reading. ~Synesti~**

Whitney's point of view:

Henry and I were on guard. Jasper had tried to be, but fell asleep yet again. We didn't mind. Henry and I had barely had any time to talk privately with everything that had been happening. But we weren't saying anything, instead we just sat together, my head leaning on his shoulder, wide awake but still relaxing because we were together. When Jasper had been awake, we decided that we constantly needed to have at least one person on guard so that we could avoid poisoning situations like the last time. Two was better than one, though, so I decided to stay up with Henry and just sit with him.

At one point, a doctor came by to check on Maggie's medication. I felt Henry stiffen next to him, and knew he was thinking the same thing I was. We were scared that the doctor was going to do something to Maggie like they had last time, but at the same time, she needed a doctor to check on her if she was to get well. We knew that everyone at the house except for William had been caught, but he had friends elsewhere, didn't he? So it could be one of them. Or someone he paid to kill her. Accidents happened all the time in hospitals. People die. It might be looked-over. Paranoid thoughts flitted through our heads, and we found ourselves terrified anytime anyone came in or even walked by. But what could we do? We were at a hospital. Doctors and nurses work at hospitals. Not all of them could be evil maniacs trying to kill a sixteen-year-old girl and any witnesses to fix an old grudge to a former friend who just happened to be this girl's father. And Maggie and Jasper needed help…my head hurt just thinking about the complexities of the situation. Henry didn't look that much calmer then I felt.

The only time I felt at all relaxed was when Maggie's dad came and sat with her. He, of anyone, would be able to recognize William the fastest, and he, of everyone in this room (specifically four teenagers, two of whom are incapacitated, one of whom has substantial fighting training, and me, who has absolutely no skills when it comes to this stuff), would know what to do about a situation. However, Mr. Winnock didn't exactly seem himself. He was deep in thought, and seemed sad; causing me to think that he was feeling guilty for what had happened to his daughter. I wanted to say something to comfort him, but I had no part in this matter. What we were dealing in was specifically a Winnock family affair, something that had already killed one family member, and Henry, Jasper, and I were just caught up in it by mere proximity and a huge share of bad luck that seemed to be perpetually following us all.

Eventually Mr. Winnock spoke to us, although in reality it was because of something I did. When Maggie was asleep at the farmer's house, I took off her mother's necklace and put it in one of the pockets of my pants for safe-keeping. Feeling the sharp digging feeling of the one of the edges in the side of my leg, I lifted it out and looked at it. Mr. Winnock glanced at me and saw the necklace. His eyes filled with tears momentarily. He held his hand out, and I carefully set it on his palm. "Maggie got a hold of it when she was confronting William. He was…talking about her mother."

"It was her mother's necklace. She was wearing it when she died. I got it for her mother as a wedding present; we meant to give it to Maggie when she was older. We thought it was lost in the car crash. Was William…was he talking about killing her mother?" He spoke quietly and very sadly. Seeing my look of surprise, he added, "I was told she mentioned it in a nightmare. I had always wondered."

"Yes, he was. And Jasper scared him and William dropped the necklace which is how Maggie got it again. I just took it off her when she was sleeping, that's how I came to have it."

"Thank you for giving it to me," he said. "It'll be a good thing to give to Maggie later." He smiled a little, somewhat bitterly. "When I catch William I will show him that he will not touch my family again. He will leave Maggie alone and never come near her again, I promise."

The talk of her mother made me remember losing my dad, and I began to tear up myself. Henry squeezed my hand, and I squeezed it back. The whole room was silent for awhile, except for the sound of our breathing and the faint sound of footsteps going by in the hallway.

Mr. Winnock glanced at his watch and frowned. "I have to go back to work; we're looking for William ourselves. By the way, they think you all can be sent home tonight, so we can spend Christmas all together. All the healing that Maggie needs anymore is in her mind, and that's best done at home." He walked over to the side of Maggie's bed, leaning over Jasper and his chair, and kissed Maggie on the forehead. "I'll come back later, Mags. Tonight I'm taking you home and we'll have Christmas."

He left, leaving Henry and I alone on our silent vigil again. Henry glanced at me carefully and broke his end of the silence. "Are you okay, Whitney?" he asked, squeezing my hand again. "You're missing your dad, aren't you?" he asked. Apparently one of his skills was reading people like they were open books. Or maybe just me, I couldn't be sure. I bit my lip and nodded. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "I'm sure your dad is looking down and he's proud of everything you've done. None of this has been easy, and you've been doing amazing with everything that has happened." He hugged me, but I didn't feel completely fine yet. I released my bite on my lip, praying that I wouldn't say what I was thinking, but my mouth opened and I said it anyway, unable to stop myself any longer.

"You make it seem so easy," I said, grabbing a fistful of his shirt to avoid crying. "You make it seem like it all comes naturally, and you're so strong and I'm not, like you're Superman and I'm just an ordinary human who can't do anything without help." I felt myself beginning to cry anyway, and felt disgusted. I pressed my face into his shoulder so he couldn't see me crying. I was pretty sure he could hear me though, and he rubbed my back carefully, trying to calm me down.

"Whitney," he said slowly and very sadly. "It's not easy for me, either. I've cried so many times because of everything, and I've felt like curling up into a ball and never coming out more times than I can count. I'm not Superman, whoever he is. I'm just me, Henry with a mythology-happy last name."

"I like Mythology," I said into his shoulder. "And 'just Henry' is way more than you think it is, you dummy. You might think its normal, but normal every-day human beings don't go around with about a hundred super-human skills every single day. Normal people don't miraculously know how to get out of every single situation that life throws at them like it's a game. They just don't!"

"For every student, there is a teacher," he said. "I learned everything from being taught it, it's not natural to me, and it wasn't easy to learn to say the least. And I might have learned a lot of stuff, but beneath everything I'm just like you," he said gently. I laughed. He stiffened, trying to find out what I was laughing about, and amended his statement. "I meant mentally. I know I'm a guy and you're a girl. But I'm nothing special, Whitney. I don't want you to feel bad because you haven't been taught the same things that I have. You're one of the most amazing people I have ever met, I mean it!"

I smiled, pulling my face away from his shoulder so that he could see. "Thank you, Henry," I whispered. I didn't want Maggie or Jasper to wake up and see us. This was a private moment and I wanted it to stay that way. Feeling a lot calmer I asked, "So, any idea where our parent are?"

He paused, thoughtful. "Last I heard, Mr. Winnock is at work, my parents and your mom and sisters went home, braving the icy roads and letting my mom drive to save time so that we could have some clean clothes, and Uncle B. went to the police station, braving the icy roads to tell the police everything that has happened that we told everyone earlier this morning, and after that has a very important school-board meeting for the deans of our school district. He tried to get out of it but he couldn't, so he won't be back until tomorrow so we can have an amazing family Christmas."

"So we're here by ourselves?" I asked, worried. I felt better having an adult around that I could trust, even if it was Mom, who's English wasn't very good. At least I could trust her to tell me what to do and yell stern criticisms in Russian if anyone tried to come near us without express permission.

"Temporarily, until our parents come back with, I hope, some clean clothes including a shirt that doesn't go down to my knees, the four of us are the only ones of us here. However, we aren't alone because there are tons of patients, doctors, nurses, and people sitting behind desks here. And also the half a dozen police all over this floor looking out for us. So I think we are pretty much covered."

I smiled; feeling relieved, and leaned my head back into his shoulder and relaxed. "Oh good, I'm happy now." He gave me a hug and leaned his head onto my shoulder. We simultaneously stiffened as all sense of happy relaxing left as we heard s noise from the corner of the room.

Jasper raised his head, glancing around in a confused fashion. He smiled at us when he saw us and mumbled, "Remind me never, ever to sleep with my head down on a hospital bed while I sit in an uncomfortable hospital chair. It really messes up my neck." He began to rub his neck with his bad hand.

"Ah-ah," I said. "Don't use that hand," I said, reminding him. He froze with his hand a few inches from his neck in one of those awkward positions normally reserved for P.E. stretches.

"But that hand's occupied," he said sadly. "I'm holding Maggie's hand with the other one." It was very cute, I couldn't help but smile. "Okay," he decided aloud. "I will handle this problem later." He rubbed his nose against his shoulder. "Hospital clothes are so itchy…it's disgusting."

Almost on cue, Henry and my parents came back in, holding two bags of clothes. "Not enjoying your hospital clothes, Jasper?" my dad said teasingly. Jasper smiled.

"No, I'm not! They are itchier than anything I have ever worn, including that one suit that I had to wear for one of Dad's work parties!" He yanked on the sleeves a few times and gave up, sighing.

"Okay, well, we'll leave these in here and you can change when you get the chance, okay? We have some clothes for all of you, including Maggie," Mom said, setting the bag down lightly. "And you can take showers when you come home. We were trying to be fast and didn't bring your shower stuff."

"Okay, thank you," I said as they left. I opened one bag and found it to be full of boy's clothes. "Okay, Jasper and Henry, this one is yours. The other one is me and Maggie then, I guess."

"Yes!" Jasper cried. "Non-itchy, normal-sleeved clothing," he cried. I wondered if anyone in the hallway thought we were going insane in here. I kept expecting someone to come in the door and ask us if we were okay. Or Maggie to wake up because of all the noise, either one of those seemed plausible.

"At least your clothes fit," Henry said jokingly. He stood up away from me, leaving me feeling like half of myself, distressingly incomplete. He stood up so Jasper could see the ridiculous length of his shirt. "This is not a shirt, Jasper," he said. "No matter where you are in the world, this is counts as a dress! A dress, Jasper! Is this what American fashion coming too, Jasper?" He spun around in a quick circle, showing off his shirt-dress. I put my hand over my mouth to stop myself from laughing.

"What the heck?" Maggie mumbled. "Is this heaven?" She looked at Henry, seeming extremely confused, and blinked a couple times. "No, not heaven, heaven wouldn't confuse me this much." She put one hand to her head and flinched. "Ah, no, remind me not to do that." She tried to sit up and immediately retched, coming up empty this time but making the horrible sound that I remembered every single time that my sisters or I had the flu. "Oh, God, that's disgusting…"

"Okay, down you go," Jasper said, leaning her back down so that she was lying back down. "Are you okay?" he asked. She pressed her hands into her eyes and made an unhappy sound.

"Is the light making your head hurt worse?" I asked. They were really bright, it hurt my eyes and I wasn't dealing with extreme injuries and medications that probably made her head spin non-stop. I came over to the side of her bed and put my hand in the light, blocking it. "There, I dimmed it."

"Thank you, Whitney," she whispered. She opened her eyes and removed her hands from her eyes and grimaced. "That's better, thank you. Sorry about that, at least I didn't throw anything up this time." She said it with the desperate smile of someone really looking for the bright side in something. "I really don't like it here. When do we get to go home? I don't want to spend Christmas here."

"We're not going to spend Christmas here, don't worry. Your dad is taking us home tonight; we'll have Christmas at home. So we can all have Christmas with us all together, just like always," Jasper said. I knew what he meant finally. He and Maggie had spent every single Christmas together ever since her mother had died. It was easier for both their families, since his mother left right before Christmas when he was seven and her mother died around early in December when they were twelve it was easier for two families when they were both missing someone important to them.

One of the doctors came in. "How are we doing, Margaret?" he asked, inspecting the stitches the side of her head carefully. "Can you sit up? Are you feeling dizzy or nauseous or anything?"

"I tried to sit up earlier, I keep trying to throw up," she mumbled. I had moved my hand, and she made the mistake of looking up. She winced and covered her eyes. "That light is not doing wonders for my headache," she admitted, sounding muffled from talking around her hands.

The doctor gently sat her up. "Okay, are you feeling nauseous now," he asked. Maggie shook her head. "No, don't move your head too much. Okay, uncover your eyes." She refused, and he carefully moved her hands away from her face. "Is the light hurting you?" She shivered, and Jasper grabbed her hand. Maggie opened her eyes and winced. "Okay, we can lower the lights if that will help you some. I'm going to have you lie back down and then sit back up to see how mobility you have so we know how you'll do when you go home." He pushed her gently back down. "Okay, sit up now."

Maggie put her hands on her mattress and pushed herself upright until she was able to sit up and immediately put one hand to her forehead. "Okay, doesn't feel good," she admitted, but she remained sitting up. "Ha ha, I remained upright!" she said, cheering quietly to herself.

"Can you stand up," the doctor said. I felt myself stiffen up, wondering if he was trying to hurt her in anyway. However, we needed to know her limits, so I relaxed and allowed him to convince her to try to stand up. "Jasper, can you catch her if she falls, please?" Jasper agreed of course, and we all stepped back a ways to allow Maggie some room. Grabbing onto the bars of her bed, Maggie inched her legs over the side of the bed and lined her small feet on one of the lines of the tiles on the floor and stood. Her knees buckled and she fell forward into Jasper, who immediately caught her just before she hit the floor. Henry leapt forward and helped him put her back into bed. I stood there awkwardly, trying to figure out exactly how I could be of assistance and came up empty.

Maggie jumped in to save me inadvertently. "Can I change clothes, please?" she asked pleadingly. "These clothes are itchy!" she said. Jasper laughed a little, amused that she was repeating him without knowing it, still hovering over her bed in case something happened her again.

"Yes, that's a fine idea," the doctor said. "Okay, Whitney, can you help her?"

Glad that I could help in some way, I agreed. All the boys left, and the doctors left me some fresh bandages in case we wanted to change any of them. I was glad for all the first aid classes I had taken; I knew how to use them so we didn't have to worry about Maggie getting an infection. Maggie glanced at me from the corner of her eye. "I'm a mess, just to let you know," she whispered.

"It's okay, none of us are much better," I said back. "Thank you for warning me, though. I'm sorry that they hurt you so badly." She smiled a little and winced as she sat up. "Do you want some help?" I asked, wondering if she was going to pass out on me like she had the last time I helped her dress. I didn't want her to. It had been scary and the passing out couldn't be good for her.

"No, I want to do this myself," she said stubbornly, managing to smile a little as she did so. She pulled one arm in through her shirt sleeve and got it out from under the shirt. "Okay, I need help with the other one, please," she said. I gently helped her pull her arm through, surprised to find her arm covered in bandages. Then I remembered the long cut to her arm that Henry had helped her with.

"Did they give you stitches in her arm for the cut?" I asked her, pointing at it. She looked at her arm blankly and shrugged, something I hadn't seen her do very much before.

"Quite possibly," she said, rubbing it very slightly with her hand. I took her hand to stop her and she smiled at me. "Thank you. I never really noticed before. My side and my head hurt worse, especially my head." She sighed. "You know, when he shot me, I originally felt like it wasn't me who had been shot. Like I was completely distanced from myself, and I felt like that again when I woke up and had my panic attack and acted like a psycho earlier. Like I was observing myself, and couldn't stop.

"We figured that was what happened with you. It just didn't seem like you…" I said. "I understand about the nightmares though." I paused for a minute before admitting. "You really scared me there. When I woke up and you were screaming. It scared me really badly. I'm glad you're okay."

"Yeah," she whispered, and pulled her shirt off over her head. "Can you hand me the new shirt? And I don't think I can get it over my own head. My side hurts really badly." I handed her the shirt and glanced at her side, which was completely wrapped in bandages completely around her ribcage.

"Does it hurt?" I asked her. "Do you want me to help you change the bandage?"

"Sure," she replied, removing the bandage with one hand. "Yeah, it hurts a lot." She ran one hand lightly over the bruising and winced. "Ah, yeah, that isn't good. They apparently had me do some breathing exercises at one point to help them push back out but they gave me a lot of medication so I wouldn't remember it because the process is apparently really painful. There are a few breaks, but over all I was really lucky." She glanced down at herself, noting all the bruises, and began to tear up.

"You're very brave," I told her, and helped her rewrap a fresh bandage around her ribcage and helped her put a clean shirt on. "There you go. Do you want a fresh bandage on your arm?" I asked. Her bandage was bleeding through, I had noticed, which couldn't be good for her."

"Sure," she said. "I haven't seen it after the stitches were put in." She glanced up at me, her brown eyes wide. "It's probably really messy. You don't like blood, do you?"

"Not my favorite thing, but its fine. Let me help." She sighed and held out her arm and I undid the bandages. The stitches seemed raw and painful, but weren't as bad as I expected. "Okay," I said aloud to no one in particular, and rewrapped it with a fresh bandage, tucking the edge under near her thumb. "There you okay. Does it feel okay?" I was worried I had made it too tight.

"It feels fine, thanks." She said. "Can you hand me my pants? I think I can put them on myself." I handed her a pair of pants and she stood up carefully, keeping one hand on a death grip on the bars on the side of her bed and pulled her pants off, replacing them with the clean pair. "Okay, I did it."

"If you don't mind, I think I'll change in here too," I said, and quickly changed my clothes. "Are you looking forward to coming back home for Christmas?" I asked, looking for a conversation subject.

"Yeah, but it's going to be kind of weird," she said, narrowing her eyes. "Every year Jasper and I have spent it together and it's always a sad-happy thing, like we're happy that it's Christmas and that we can spend it together but we're sad because we both miss our mom's." She looked like she was going to cry and blinked several times. "When he was really young, Jasper used to tell me that he hoped his mom would call and tell him she loved him. But now he's scared she'll cry because he's so mad at her. I always only had to feel sad, not angry, because we thought it was an accident…"She finally began to cry, grabbing the pillow and burying her face into it so that I didn't have to see her cry, much like I had with Henry's shirt when I was confessing how inferior I felt earlier. I sat down next to her.

"I miss my Daddy too," I whispered, crying myself. "He didn't deserve to die. Hey, don't choke yourself like that," I said, pulling her pillow away. "It's okay to cry, it just means you loved your Mom."

She smiled. "Thank you, Whitney." She wiped her eyes and took several deep breaths. "Okay, let's try not to look too emotional when the boys come back in." She pressed one hand to her chest as though stifling a cough and looked terrified. "Whitney, my mom's necklace!" she said hysterically. "I must have lost it. Oh God…" she put her head back down on her knees, hyperventilating.

"No, I took it from you and gave it to your Dad. He has it now. It's safe. Calm down, Maggie."

She took several deep breaths. "Thank you so much…I didn't want to lose it…Dad has it safe?"

"Yes, I promise. Your dad has it." I hugged her. "I know, sorry, I should have told you first. I didn't mean to scare you like that."

"It's okay. I've scared you plenty." She paused, a strange look coming into her eyes. "You, I heard you talking…when I was kind of unconscious but not all the way…I heard you talking to the doctor about thinking Jasper and I had died? When was that?"

"We tried…to go rescue you," I said, remembering standing in the building and hearing the gunshot that we had believe d to have ended our friends lives. "Henry and I heard the sound a gunshot and we heard the door slam, which sounded a lot like another gunshot…and we assumed you had died. We believed it until they brought Jasper in. He looked like a nightmare, though. He was covered in blood; I thought I was having a nightmare until he started talking so calmly."

"Oh…" she whispered. "Look!" she cried, pointing at the window and smiling. "Look, it's snowing!" Sure enough, reflecting the colors of the winter-early sunset to our window, snowflakes were dropping by the window. She smiled. "Merry Christmas, Whitney."

"Merry Christmas, Maggie."


	44. Chapter 44

Chapter Forty-Four

**Forty-four is by FAR one of the prettier numbers out there. Sorry. I do that every once and a while. My friends used to give me weird looks but now they just smile and try not to look so confused.**

**Recently I went back and I re-read this entire story, starting from Chapter One. I was surprised to see how things have changed, especially how much longer my chapters have gotten. My last chapter broke four thousand, while my first was in the four hundreds! It's really quite fascinating. I guess as the plot grew more complicated I had more to say.**

** I hope this doesn't make anyone too terribly sad. Dripping Seconds is wrapping itself up. I am not done; I still probably have at least five chapters after this before it ends. It's been a lot of fun but I'm going to move on to some other stories. I don't think my next one will be quite as long as this one, while fun, sometimes writing off of the same old thing got really quite tiring.**

** I haven't said this in forever so: I do NOT own Unnatural History or any of the characters that appear in this and the show. If I did, a) I would be really quite busy for a fifteen year old, and b) the show would still be going, instead of the other Cartoon Network shows that were, less face it, inferior.**

Maggie's point of view:

When the boys came back and everyone was together, we began to plan what we should to for Christmas. Jasper said that we ought to watch a Christmas movie because Henry didn't know who Rudolph the Red-Nosed reindeer was. Henry said that he had met many reindeers and none of them had such a bad cold that their noses turned red. Jasper looked so freaked out that Henry had to laugh. Jasper responded with, "What happened to your childhood? Did your parents tell you nothing about Christmas? Can you imagine going through life without knowing who Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is? It's so sad!" He yelled dramatically and pretended to start crying. Henry looked puzzled.

"Please tell me he's joking," Henry pleaded with me and Whitney. "I don't get it…" We convinced him that it was okay that he had never heard of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and that Jasper wasn't really sad, he was just teasing him. Henry took a deep breath and sighed. "I thought Christmas was supposed to be a happy time, not a time for confusing your cousins. Okay, tell me about this Rudolph person." By the end of the story he looked completely traumatized. "Santa's racist? Just because Rudolph has a red nose doesn't mean he's any better or worse than anyone else. And then Rudolph just forgave anybody like a ruined childhood was no big deal? They drove him to running away from home when he was just a little kid! What do these shows _teach _children anyway? That if you're different no one will like you and then the only way to be liked is to be useful? This is horrible!"

Whitney and I glanced at each other, our eyes wide. "Okay, then," she said. "We will not be watching any racist Christmas movies. You can calm down now, Henry." Henry took a deep breath. "We will also do our best not to mar Henry's abilities to watch Christmas movies anymore. Anyway…how are the house arrangements working out? There are…us four, Maggie's dad, Jasper's dad, my mother, my two little sisters and Henry's parents. We have Henry and Jasper's bedroom, Jasper's dad's bedroom, Jasper's bedroom, Maggie's room, Mr. Winnock's room, and Maggie's living room for us all to sleep in. How on earth are we going to do this?" She asked, rubbing her forehead. "This is impossible."

"Okay, we know this," Jasper said, finally calming down from laughing at Henry's panic over Rudolph's childhood. "One person can sleep in Mr. Winnock and my dad's room. Two people can sleep in Henry and my room, provided one of them can sleep comfortably in a hammock. And four people can fit in each living room. That's room for twelve people. And we have eleven. So…Mr. Winnock and my dad could keep their rooms, Henry's parents could sleep in mine and Henry's room, Whitney's mom and her little sisters could sleep in one living room, and the four of us could sleep in the other."

"That should work; my mom and my sisters are already sleeping in your living room, Jasper. So we would just sleep in Maggie's living room like we were earlier, before we got attacked with a soup-can bomb. By the way, do you think that we'll have people keeping watch on our houses again, what with William still out causing trouble?" She asked. I thought about that. It had bothered me a little, that I was making them stand out in the snow on one of the coldest cold snaps in DC history, but it had made me feel safer, knowing they were looking out for us. That was, until my 'doctor' had confessed that they had had some of their friends take over the position, meaning that we wouldn't necessarily be safe anyway.

"I actually asked about that," Henry said. "They said they installed alarms inside both houses, but they won't be stationed around us like last time. They've been following William and they're pretty sure he is nowhere in our area. If he was they would still be stationed around us. Does anyone have any idea when we are able to leave this place? I really want to go back home, I don't like it here."

"I think they have to run some last tests for me," I said. "I have to have another MRI. To make sure there isn't swelling in my brain or check on my concussion or something, I'm not exactly sure what they will be doing. It has to do with my brain." I tried to scratch my arm, the stitches were really itchy. Jasper pinned my hand between both of his to stop me, no saying anything. I felt annoyed and bit my lip. "I have no idea when my MRI is though…" I glanced at the clock, annoyed that it couldn't help me.

"Are you scared?" Jasper asked me. "I wouldn't like the idea of being inside one of the machines for so long. It sounds a little bit claustrophobic." I shivered as he reminded me. "Oh, sorry," he said. "I don't suppose you really want to hear all about this if you don't feel very comfortable about it either."

As though on cue, one of the doctors came in and smiled at me. "Okay, Margaret, I need you to come with me for your MRI," she said. "Everyone can wait right here, your procedure will only last about half an hour and you'll come back. After that, your dad will come and take you four back home."

"Okay," I said, fake-smiling at her and standing up. "See you when I get back, guys." I stood up. "Oh, I'm dizzy." I said. How on earth was I going to get to the Radiology area if I couldn't stand very well? I would collapse before we made it to the elevator. I glanced apologetically at the doctor.

"Oh, it's fine," the doctor said, smiling cheerfully. I found myself liking her, but didn't want to trust the feeling. "I was told that this might happen, so I have a wheelchair out in the hallway ready for you. Here," she held out her hand to me and I took it, following her out into the hallway. I turned around briefly, smiling and waving at everybody. The doctor helped me situate myself in the wheelchair. "By the way, my name is Dr. Terry. Is there anything I would like me to call you other than Margaret? Like a nickname or anything?" She was smiling at me, very earnestly, and I had to struggle not to immediately trust her. My last doctor had been very nice or friendly also, and look who he was in reality.

"No, thank you," I said politely as she pushed the wheelchair. I didn't want to get too terribly friendly with her until I knew she was trustworthy. A nickname is an early sign of trust, something I couldn't give her yet. "Margaret is just fine. What exactly are we doing the MRI for?"

"As I'm sure you know you have a very bad concussion. You're surprisingly lucid at the moment; we want to make sure that the effects of your concussion and the trauma from your gunshot wound haven't caused any major problems inside your head." She pushed my wheelchair around a curve in the hallway. "Almost to Radiology now, are you nervous at all, Margaret?" She smiled at me. "I can answer any questions you might have. It's normal to feel somewhat nervous before the MRI."

"Only a little," I said, smiling in a false way. The nurse patted my shoulder gently, as though seeing through me, and wheeled my chair in silence for a little while. We didn't meet anyone along the way; the hallway was very quiet, which innerved me slightly. I pulled on the hem of my shirt, a nervous habit that I had ever since childhood. I squeezed one hand in the other in order to calm myself.

"Okay, here we are," she said, pushing my wheel chair into the room. "You don't need to change; do you have any metal in your clothing?" I shook my head. "And you're sure there isn't anything in your pockets?" I slid the hand on my uninjured arm into my pockets and nodded. "Okay, good. Ordinarily, I would give you an X-ray to make sure you don't have any bullet fragments in your head, but we did that before your previous MRI. I was your Radiologist for your last MRI." She smiled at me. "You were by far one of the calmest patients I have ever seen. Maybe that was because you were completely sedated though." She wheeled me over to the patient table. "Can you lie down on this for me?" She helped me up and I got down on the patient table. She put padding underneath my knees and helped adjust the straps that would help keep me still after allowing me to put in my earplugs. "Okay," she said, speaking to a little microphone that was wired to my earplugs. "Can you hear me, Margaret?" I gave her a thumbs-up. "Good. I'm going to put you into the machine now, is that okay?" I gave another, more timid, thumbs-up. "Good, I have to leave the room. Please don't panic or anything. I'll continue to give you instructions." She left the room, leaving me all alone and beginning to panic very slightly. "Okay," I heard her say. "I can see you. Give me a thumbs-up if you can hear me." I gave her a very shaky thumbs-up. "Okay, I'm putting you in now." She apparently hit a button, because the machine began to feed me in. I could hear a lot of clicking and thumping noises through my earplugs and tried to relax

This began a long sit-in in a painfully small tube. The doctor didn't say much, occasionally asking me to hold my breath or reminding me to hold still. I distracted myself by watching a spinning object above my face, watching the flashing lights as it went around and around until I got dizzy and closed my eyes to make it stop. Then she surprised me by telling me that I had to come out, that we had reached the half-way point. I was annoyed; I was very stiff and sore and had no intention of lying down if she let me up. I would fight for my right not to lie down on a table in a tiny machine, injuries aside.

"I need to make some contrast images. It's good for seeing if there is swelling anywhere," she said as she pulled the patient table out of the MRI. "So I'm going to use the MRI dye at this time. This is done with a butterfly needle, and it will probably be pretty painless. She undid the straps and let me sit up, helping me to remove my earplugs. "Okay, time for the injection. It is normal to feel a cool feeling as it goes into you. The injection is followed by a saline solution to flush it through your system, okay?" She very carefully inserted the needle into my wrist. It felt like a slight pricking, and then a cool rush as it went in, which lasted for about a minute as the dye left the needle and went into me. She administered the saline solution and then put a band-aid on my wrist because it was bleeding very slightly. She helped me but the earplugs back in and strapped me back down. "You're doing great," she said into the microphone so that I could hear her. "You're very brave. We'll be done in about fifteen minutes. How does that sound?" I smiled enthusiastically and gave her a thumbs-up. She smiled back. "I thought so," she said and left. The machine began feeding me in, and the process began again.

It felt like hours before the whirring stopped. I took a deep breath and waited as she came back in and pulled me out of the machine, undid my earplugs and unstrapped me from the stupid machine. She helped me sit up because I saw so stiff and moved me back to my wheelchair. "I'm going to bring you back to your friends now. You did amazingly, thank you for being so calm. Many patients your age panic in the machine. Did you feel frightened at all? You looked a little nervous."

"I felt a little nervous," I admitted. "Mostly I really didn't like the noises in the machine. They were loud even through the ear plugs and my head hurt and my arm was really itchy so it was overall just really uncomfortable. I didn't want to stay still. The needle was surprisingly comfortable though."

"We get a lot of comments about the noise, I have had an MRI myself and I wasn't very fond of the noise myself. And, also speaking from personal experience, I can say I agree with you about the stitches, they can be extremely itchy." I asked her if she knew when I could have my stitches out. "Stitches typically stay in for a week to ten days," she said, smiling. "So I would say sometime in there. You should check with your actual doctor though. I'm just speaking from what they told me when I cut my hand open." She showed me the slight scaring from her thumb to her wrist. "I was quite young then, and I'm going to say that your injuries looked quite a bit worse when I saw them."

I didn't know what to say because I felt way too friendly with her. Instead I said nothing, staring down at my bandage. "Margaret?" she said gently. "Are you okay?" I said nothing and she stopped the wheelchair, sitting down in front of the wheelchair in the middle of the hallway. "Margaret, look at me. What's wrong, why are you acting so strange? Does your head hurt or something? If so we will be back in just a little bit and you can lie down and go to sleep before your dad comes and gets you." I shook my head and regretted it. "Okay, tell me what's up or I will sit in your way and we will sit in this hallway forever and trust me, I'm cranky if I don't get my coffee in the morning." She smiled. "What's up?"

"The last doctor I had was really nice to me and he was secretly evil. You've heard about that story, haven't you? About what happened to all of us?" She nodded. "So, even though you are really nice and everything," I said, biting my lip, "I'm scared that you are secretly evil and trying to kill me."

"Maggie…can I call you Maggie? I know that's what your friends call you." I nodded. "Seriously, honey, if I wanted to kill you, I would have had about a million opportunities while giving you your MRI. That dye could have been anything I wanted it to be if I was trying to dispose of you. And yes, I have been following the story of you and your friends, and I'm so sorry that all had to happen to you. But I need you to trust me for now. I'm a doctor. I'm trying to help you get better. You'll probably have to have many MRI's to check on those head injuries and it's probably going to be me giving you the MRI. I'm not trying to hurt you or any of your friends. Okay, sweetie," she said. I nodded, so she stood up and walked back behind the wheelchair and continued to push me like nothing had happened.

When we finally made back to my room, Doctor Terry smiled at me. "Okay, take it easy Maggie. I'm on your side." She opened up the door. "And we're back," she called cheerfully.

"Maggie!" Jasper called, running over to me and hugging me, practically lifting me out of my wheelchair. "How are you? How was your MRI? You were gone for a really long time, we were so worried." He turned to Doctor Terry. "Is she okay? Are there any complications or anything?"

"I haven't inspected anything very closely but everything looks fine. Sorry it took us so long, we had to talk about some things." She smiled at me. "I think she's completely fine."

"Thank you," Jasper said, calming down. "We were just worried because she was gone for such a long time." Doctor Terry said that she understood, yes, yes, it was okay, combating all of Jasper's embarrassed statements with her reassurances. She smiled at me, waved, and left, taking the wheelchair with her. Jasper helps me to sit on my bed because I am still dizzy.

"How was it?" Henry asked curiously. "I've never had an MRI before." He glanced at my band-aid. "Oh, did they give you a shot or something?" I glanced down at my wrist, having forgotten the band-aid was even there. I had to say I preferred the butterfly needles to the IV any time.

"Yeah, they gave me some dye for the contrast images and they had to give it to me through a needle. It felt really funny going in, actually, it was pretty cold. And then they have to use saline solution to make sure that it goes all the way through me and doesn't just show up in my arm. And the MRI was just fine, though really annoying because I had to stay still for so long. When she took me out to give me the dye at the halfway point, I considered refusing to lie back down. I was even willing to fight her, it was that uncomfortable." They looked at me. "I didn't fight her though," I reassured them.

"Yeah, that doesn't sound like something you would do," Whitney said, laughing. "I'm sorry you were so uncomfortable though." I smiled back and rubbed my shoulder, which was sore from lying on it. I was sure there were plenty of bruises there; I just wasn't ready to look yet. They would heal easily at least, and I wouldn't have to remember them eventually. We were pretty sure I'd have scars where my stitches were, which I hated. I didn't want to have to remember everything that has happened.

"I have to go to the bathroom," Whitney admitted.

"I'll come with you," Henry offered. "You shouldn't go by yourself." He glanced at me, and I knew he was thinking that if I was better healed, I could have gone with her myself. But I couldn't. I felt ashamed, but smiled. Henry and Whitney left, leaving Jasper and I alone.

We were silent for a bit. It was a comfortable silence; we didn't feel the need to say anything. Then footsteps ran by our door, pausing and turning around and running back to our door. The door flew open, and standing in its earlier place was a woman I didn't immediately recognize. And then it dawned on me as Jasper grew stiff and looked furious. It was his mother.

"Jasper!" his mom gushed. "Oh, you're alright! I had heard about you going missing. Oh, I'm so glad that you are okay!" She rushed in and threw her arms around him. He didn't put his arms back; instead they hung limply at his sides. "Jasper, why don't you hug your mother?" She demanded. "Don't you love your mother?" Jasper's shoulders began to shake, and nervousness rose inside of me.

"Where have you been all this time?" he demanded, too loud and angry. He pulled away from her. "You left me! I was seven years old, and it was nearly Christmas and we were walking in the park and you left me! You said you had to go to the store; wouldn't I sit on the park bench and be a good boy? And I did, I sat there and I thought about how I had heard you and Dad fighting at night and I felt scared but I knew you were coming back and when Dad found me that night, sitting on the park bench and crying and I knew you were never coming back. Where have you been?" He was shouting.

"Jasper, honey, where I've been doesn't matter… what matters is that I'm back and we can be a family again just like we used to. Don't you want that? " She tried to hug him, and he pulled away again, shaking his hand and still shaking as he tried to suppress his anger and failed.

"What was so important that you left me for it? What was so important that you ran away and didn't come back for nine years?" She was silent. "Answer me! Why did you leave us? Why did you leave me and Dad? Why did you just walk away? Did you have to go somewhere? Did something happen? Why didn't you tell me? I thought you were coming back! I waited for you!" He had begun to cry. I felt horrible. I wanted to hug him but couldn't. This was necessary in a horrible, painful way.

"I wasn't happy, Jasper. You heard me and Dad fighting. I wasn't happy." She said that as though it made everything better. As though that was an excuse, but instead Jasper only was getting angrier.

"You left because you stopped being 'happy'? How do I know that won't happen again? If I accidently track mud in, will you leave? If Dad forgets to move the laundry to the drier, will you leave us again?" He turned around, raising his hand as though he was going to punch the wall again. I caught his hand and stopped him. One broken hand was bad enough, two would be horrible.

Jasper's mom seemed at loss for words. I couldn't believe she had imagined it would be easy. That Jasper would just open his arms and let her back into his life as though nothing had happened, as though he hadn't sat on a park bench one day when he was seven listening to his own heart break. It made me feel sick. I remembered our first overlapping Christmas, the first Christmas when we were both missing our Mom's when I couldn't seem to say a word and he couldn't stop talking, and he talked to me about how much he missed his mom and just wished she would come back. The year after, the the second Christmas, he talked about how she had left him, and how he couldn't forgive her because she had never told him why.

Jasper's mom was being clueless though. She stood there, watching him cry as I grabbed onto his wrist to keep him from breaking his hand. "Jasper, haven't you missed me?" she pleaded. I felt every muscle in his arm tense up, and I knew he was going to explode. I couldn't blame him.

"I thought I did," he said calmly. "I thought I missed you. And maybe I did. You can ask Maggie. Even when I was twelve, I prayed that you would come back, that you would call me at least, that you would tell me that you loved me; maybe even say you were coming back. At least tell me it wasn't my fault. But then things changed, I don't want you back. I thought I missed you, but really I just missed believing that love wasn't something that can be taken away by those who are supposed to love you. So, no, I don't want you to come back. I don't want to be a family again. I don't miss you, and you certainly aren't part of my family anymore." He said this all without looking at her. I didn't look at her either.

We heard the door open and close, and at first I thought she was leaving. Then I heard another set of footsteps in the room. "What are you doing here," Dean Bartlett said, talking to the woman he had used to love. "You shouldn't be here. And you really shouldn't be talking to Jasper!"

"He's my son!"

"You lost that right when you left him in the park! You shouldn't be here!"

"You can't make me leave! Like it or not, I am his mother! He was borne of me! He is my son, no matter what happens, no matter what either of us does and no amount of argument will ever take away my claim to him." His mother was shouting. Dean Bartlett was shouting. I pulled Jasper down next to me and hugged him, pulling his head into my shoulder so that he didn't have to see any of it. My shirt was immediately wet. He grabbed onto me tightly, wrapping his arms around me and confirming my thought that I was covered in bruises when it began to hurt. I didn't react, instead wrapping my arms around him and squeezing. I found myself crying, I didn't know what to do.

"You left us. You left us, you can't just come back. It's been nine years since you even tried to communicate with us. You are gone. Get out of here, you don't belong here!" Dean Bartlett said.

"I love you!" She shouted at him. "I love you! Don't you still love me?"

"Do you love me? Or are you in love with the idea of me? The next time you're unhappy, will you run away for nine years again? I'm sorry, but we can't be that family again. You took that away."

It was too horrible, too horrible to listen to Jasper's mom cry and storm out of the room, too horrible to listen to Dean Bartlett cry as he sat down. I kept a death-grip on Jasper and he kept the death-grip back on me as though I was a life-line. As though only by holding onto me he could avoid splitting to pieces.


	45. Chapter 45

Chapter Forty-Five

**Well that Chapter was tremendously dramatic. That wasn't actually in my plan of what to do with this story, but it happened as I was writing and I think I liked it. **

**My education has resumed its normal programming, so my updates are probably going to become less frequent. However, I will try to update this story at least once a week, hopefully on the weekends at least. Don't worry if my updating slows down considerably though, I have no intentions of ever leaving this story, especially as I get closer to the ending.**

** I have decided, for sure, that my next story will be a Henry x Maggie story. After that, I'll decide which pairing I like better. The next story will probably not be as long as this story though, but it will be at least five-ten chapters. Also, do you, my dear readers and hopefully reviewers, like the new, longer lengths of my chapters, or wish I would start making them shorter? Please respond!**

** By the way, January 21****st**** will mark the sixth-month mark of this story, and my time on this website! Here's to hoping 2011 will be just as fantastic as 2010, if not better, for all of you. **

Henry's point of view:

When Whitney and I made it back to the room after getting slightly lost on the trip, we found Maggie and Jasper hugging each other as though their lives depended on it as impossibly loud sobbing noises came from deep inside Jasper's chest, and Dean Bartlett leaving the room looking as though he had been crying himself. When I was sure the four of us were alone, I sat down on the edge of the bed. "What the heck happened here?" I demanded. Jasper was crying. I wasn't sure if Maggie was.

Whitney tried a gentler approach. She sat down next to Maggie, awkwardly trying to balance with the very little room that was left. "Maggie," she said, obviously deciding, like I had, that Maggie was the calmer of the two of them. "Maggie, what happened? Are you two okay?" She put her hand very lightly on Maggie's shoulders. Jasper's hands were a bit in the way. He was holding onto Maggie so tightly that I wondered if he was causing her more bruising. I thought about warning him about that but didn't have the heart to bother him when he was that sad. "Maggie, what's up?" Whitney asked again.

"Jasper's mom stopped by," she said, raising her head up to look at us. Her eyes were red and her face was slightly damp, but she didn't seem to have been crying to terribly much. "She wanted to be part of the family again. Jasper explained to her why this was impossible and Dean Bartlett came in during it and offered his own reasons. It turned into a terribly ugly shouting match, and everyone starting crying." Jasper seemed to, impossibly, begin crying louder. "She left a little bit ago."

I bit my lip, thinking backwards to try to recall any memories of the person I would have formerly thought of as Auntie B. I recalled a very early visit to see Jasper, one of his very early birthday parties from the time where my memories were blurry pictures, just images of things I had seen. I recalled a shape tucking me in to bed as I slept on Jasper's floor, and then again lighting the candles on his birthday cake. The memories seemed nice enough, but I had been told about his mother, about what she had done and how it had made Jasper unable to trust anyone for several years. I could remember at one point asking him if he wanted to play at the park with me and him flinching and even breaking down crying when we got to a certain bench until I dragged him back home. That's when they told me.

I sat next to Jasper and wondered what to do. I didn't understand what he was feeling. How could I? My parents did send me to DC to live, but at least they stayed in contact with me. At least they still told me they loved me and talked to me. They didn't just abandon me. Finally I decided on what I would do if he was just sad for no big reason. Hugging him from behind because he already had Maggie to his front, I told him "I'm sorry, Jasper," while patting his shoulder.

He raised his head from Maggie's shoulder and wiped his face on his sleeve to mop up his tears. "Thanks, guys. Sorry about that. I just didn't expect to see her and it really shook me up because I was remembering everything that happened when she left." He squeezed Maggie's shoulders gently before letting go of her. "Thanks, Mags," he whispered. She smiled back at him and rubbed his arm.

There was a knock on the door and we turned towards it. I resolved that if it was Jasper's mom I would push her out into the hallway and slam the door shut and wouldn't let her in. I wondered if she would try to appeal to my sense of family at all. She was, after all, part of my family before she left. And obviously the lines between the present and the past were a bit blurred for her.

Instead, as the door swung open, we say Uncle B standing in the doorway. He came over to Jasper too fast, and I stepped out of the way so that he could sit on the extremely over-crowded hospital bed. His shirt was somewhat wet, and I assumed that he had been splashing water in his face to calm himself down. He smiled at Jasper, showing the similarity between him and my mom. "Jasper," he asked nervously, over-showing his teeth as he talked while smiling, attempting to have an in-depth conversation with the son he had lost contact with in his teenage years. "Jasper, are you okay?

He nodded, but admitted that he wasn't at the same time. "When I spent that whole evening and part of the night sitting on a park bench…I was scared most of all that you would be angry that I was late coming home for dinner. And then when I woke up being carried home I was confused because you weren't mad at me, you seemed so happy even though she had left. Why were you so happy?"

"She and I had been fighting the night before she left, you heard us. You actually came into our room to tell us you had had a nightmare in the middle of the fight and we had to stop so that we wouldn't be yelling at each other in front of you. I'm very sure you heard us though. And then the next day I came home and both of you were gone and I was terrified she had taken you and left. I called the police and they went out to look for you and checked all the airports and everything and the whole time I was panicking. I couldn't lose both of you, so when I found you asleep on the park bench I felt so relieved that she hadn't taken you, I was so happy that she had left me something."

Jasper smiled and wiped his face again to collect any of the lingering tears. "Thanks, Dad… One more question." Uncle B smiled at him, nodding to tell him to go on. "How did you know she was here/ How did you know to come in?"

"Mr. Winnock was busy preparing the living room for you guys because Maggie's ability to climb stairs is pretty much compromised by this point. So he asked me if I could go get you. And when I made it to the front desk they said that Jasper's mom was in the room. And then I knew I had to get in here as fast as I could because it was either someone lying and trying to hurt you or she was back."

"Does that mean we can go home?" Maggie asked excitedly. I knew how she was feeling. This whole place felt like it was clinging to me, the sterile smell everywhere on my skin. I wanted to go home. I wanted to finally be home after everything. I wanted to be safe again, even though I knew we wouldn't be until William had been caught and put behind bars and we didn't have to feel terrified.

"Yes, but I need to get you a wheelchair, unless you would feel more comfortable having someone carry you." He said this almost teasingly, teasing both her and Jasper. I smiled, but it felt very foreign, this teasing, open Uncle B was not someone I had ever known. Would life have been much different if she had stayed and had been around when I had come to stay with them? Would Uncle B always be giving Jasper a teasing hard time? Would Jasper be a bit happier, less rude when to me when I arrived at first? It seemed like a fairy-tale until I continued to think. Would he and Maggie have become friends without their mutual understanding? Without Maggie would we have become acquainted with Whitney? I would have never found the girl that I truly love! I decided that it didn't matter what might have happened, all that mattered was what did. I remembered to listen to the agreement. I really needed to go home and get a shower and celebrate my first American Christmas.

"I can walk." Maggie said bluntly. She glanced at all of us, as if daring us to contradict her. Jasper opened his mouth as though to contradict her. She clenched her hands, and I almost laughed, remembering a time I had seen a lion club trying to look scary at her siblings when she was irritated. It wasn't only the fact that Maggie was that much smaller than me; it was just that she was so weak that if we disagreed we could easily overtake her. She locked her dark brown eyes on mine as though guessing my thoughts and narrowed her eyes. "I can walk. She glanced at the door and bit her lip.

"Are you sure?" Uncle B said, appraising her. I could imagine what he was seeing. She was still way too thin and pale, obviously still dehydrated. She hadn't eaten since some oatmeal before being recaptured. She had, between her arm and her head, probably at least fifteen stitches in her. She was dizzy and collapsed when she stood. She nearly threw up from the effort of sitting up. The damage to her head had caused massive behavioral disorders that made her have a horrible fit where she screamed and was inconsolable. There was no way she would make it to the elevator, let alone to Uncle B's car. But none of us really had the heart to tell her that she couldn't try. She would have to get her feet back under her eventually, and we could always catch her if she fell.

Maggie bit her lip and glanced again at the door, as though unsure of what she was doing. "Sure," she said. "I have to try sometime." With a nervous smile, she added. "And there is no time like the present, is there?" She swung her legs carefully over the edge of the bed and lined them up on the ground. Looking at her small feet, I tried to understand how it was possible that she would be able to stand up, that anyone was able to stand up when they were supported by something so delicate. Maggie tightened her hand around the bars on the side of her bed and very carefully stood up. Her face lit up with a giant smile, and she carefully released the metal bar, standing on her own. Her legs wobbled for a second, and she glanced behind her as though preparing to sit back down. Jasper half-raised his hands to steady her, but lowered them, catching a glare from her. "I can do this, Jasper."

The doctor who had given Maggie her MRI, I believe her name was Doctor Terry or Tammy or something like that, came back in, pushing a wheelchair. "Hey, Maggie, nice to see that you're getting up and about, how do your legs feel? Hopefully we won't need this behemoth," she said, lightly tapping the handlebars of the wheelchair with one of her nails. "So, I understand that you are ready to go home and spend Christmas Eve and Christmas in some place a little bit more…Christmas-y. I get it, but I need to give you one last examination so that we can make sure that there is no reason to keep you any longer. You all can stay in here," she said, looking around at us. Which means, of course, Maggie didn't have to get undressed for any reason, which is good, because I know putting on and taking off clothes isn't very easy for her at the moment. I nodded and smiled.

The doctor shooed them kindly away from the bed so that she could stand directly in front of Maggie, who sat back down on the bed while the tests were being carried out. We pressed against the walls, and I was glad we weren't back in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit thing. There was no room at all in that place; we wouldn't have been able to fit. The doctor stood in front of Maggie. "Okay, if my tests cause you any pain at all or make you feel dizzy, I need you to tell me immediately. No being brave, okay?" Maggie nodded. Jasper smiled at her encouragingly. "Okay. Here we go." The doctor shone a light in Maggie's eyes and moved it back and forth. "Okay, your pupils are responding just fine. Follow the light with your eyes." Maggie followed as the light moved from one side to the other side of her eye before groaning quietly and pressing her hand to the side of your head. The doctor switched off the light and immediately crouched down next to her. "Maggie, are you okay?"

"Yeah, its fine, it just hurt when I moved my eyes too fast and I got really dizzy. It's okay, it's passed now," she said earnestly. She removed her hand from the side of her head. "Sometimes my head just hurts from the stitches and everything. That's normal, isn't it?" The doctor confirmed it and asked if she was ready to continue with the examination. "Yeah, I'm completely fine. I just don't do so well with really bright lights right now," she said, trying to make a joke of it. I put my hand on Jasper's shoulder, hoping that he wouldn't be silly and try to go over where he didn't belong. He looked at me, sad and frightened and grateful for me stopping him all at once. I smiled, making sure he felt reassured. I understood. If it was Whitney there, he would be the one keeping me from being stupid. We were both in love; we were speaking the same language, something we had never done before.

The doctor continued with the light, moving it a little bit more slowly, which seemed to help Maggie a lot. She was able to follow the light, and the doctor seemed to relax, as though she had grown attached to Maggie in some way and was seriously worried about her. She took out a stethoscope and warmed it by placing it on her wrist and put it under Maggie's shirt, having her inhale and exhale. "Your lungs sound very good, and your heart sounds good too. Absolutely no problems there, I'm guessing your habit of holding your breath before going into surgeries and stuff is a stress thing. I took a brief look at your MRI's; they seemed very good, although you still have to work with that concussion of yours. You have been told about possible concussion complications," she said, turning to us. I nodded, we had been told last time. "Okay, I'm going to be very honest here. Maggie, you are slightly maybe sort of a mess." Maggie smiled, as though it was a funny joke. I was confused, but Jasper nudged me in the side with his elbow, so I assumed it was okay. "Your immune system is low. Now, your doctor told me to tell you, he's working on a very complicated procedure right now, that he didn't really want to put you on too much medication right off the bat. We're going to need to readjust you to food slowly, because you haven't been eating. I recommend you eat soft foods and liquids for today and see how that goes. If you feel fine, you can add some solids in to your diet. And lots of liquids! I'm not kidding sweetie, when you came in you were very badly dehydrated. As, I'm sure you also know, you had a chemical fever going. Luckily, it seems to have stopped just about, so we're very glad for that. You need to come in to get your concussion reevaluated in a week or two to make sure everything is healing nicely. You will probably need more MRI's, which I will be assisting you with. You will have your stitches removed at that time. We will need to sedate you most likely for the ones in your head, because it would not be comfortable at all to have those done while you were awake, and we'll probably do your arm at the same time. So maybe you'll be asleep for your MRI's. Or I'll do them first. We'll figure things out. Also, you have several damaged ribs, which I'm sure you are aware of. Those are healing nicely, and we have them back in place. If you can manage not to knock them about, they should be good as new in awhile.

"When I came in you were standing up. That is very good, the dizziness you feel should be fixing itself with time. However, I need you to be very careful. Your concussion has damaged your brain. Your decision-making capabilities may be…not up to par at times, and so something that may seem like a wonderful idea at the time could, in fact, be a very stupid idea that could get you very badly hurt. So, if you have doubt, ask someone for their opinion. And try to listen to them, even if it seems unreasonable Also, I can't stress how important it is that you don't overdo things. You are going to want to get back on your feet and being active again. You can't. I don't even want you climbing stairs as much as you can avoid it, just a few times a day. Don't try walking to far yet. Don't try to run, at all, unless you have a very good reason. I don't want you riding a bike, driving a car, or piloting an aircraft until we are sure you are completely fine." She looked at Maggie gently. "I know, this is overwhelming, but we're just trying to avoid making you have any more quality time with the MRI machine." Maggie made a face.

"Okay, Jasper," she said. "I've also been asked to speak with you about the wonderful situation you have going on with that poor hand of yours. In case you haven't noticed, and you're really, really dense, your hand was really badly broken. So badly that I had to give you X-rays." His head snapped up. "Yes, that was me." She smiled. "You were quite out of it; I'm not surprised you didn't recognize me. Your hand is very badly swollen and probably quite painful. You can take painkillers for that, we recommend the same type that we gave Maggie that she will be using for her head. You can share a bottle if you want, I can't see a problem for that. Besides that, I just want you to avoid using it as much as you can. Don't undo the bandages. You will be coming back with Maggie and we'll give you some X-rays to make sure everything's healing. The only reason we haven't given you a cast is because your hand is so swollen that we didn't think that would be a good idea. So just don't hurt it. Don't use it, if you can avoid it. Dressing may be awkward but I'm sure you'll figure things out. Does anyone have any questions for me?" She smiled cheerfully, glancing at us.

We didn't have any. "Maggie, I'm going to allow you to walk down to the car instead of using the wheelchair. I want you to be very careful though. If you get dizzy, don't wait or say anything, sit down immediately. I will be walking with you. This is very important, okay?" Maggie nodded. "On that terrifically happy note, let's go get you out of this place, or we'll be here until Christmas!"

I really, really like Maggie's doctor/radiologist person. She's very nice and interesting.

"Why, thank you, Henry!" she said, startling me. _And apparently a mind-reader,_ I thought to myself, staring at her blankly for several seconds before realizing I had held the door open for her.

"Oh, you're welcome," I said, recovering. Jasper elbowed me, I'm sure he noticed. Whitney giggled and I took her hand, whispering "I'm very silly sometimes." She laughed in response.

Maggie walked very slowly and very carefully down the hallway, taking her time. But then, just as we were trying to make it into the elevator, she grabbed the sides of her head and swayed. Jasper grabbed her as her knees began to buckle and held her up. I helped him sit her down. The doctor crouched down in front of her. "Maggie? Are you okay? Can you hear me?" She took Maggie's arm. It was limp. "Maggie…" she seemed sad, somewhat frightened even. She carefully leaned over to listen to her breath. "She's breathing okay. I think she was just too exhausted."

"I can carry her," Jasper offered, preparing to pick her up carefully.

"No," Maggie mumbled, opening her eyes. "I can walk just fine, Jasper." She tried to sit up, and he pulled her back down, causing her to land with a slight bump on the floor.

"No," he said sternly. "No, you can't. You need help, Maggie. You can't walk by yourself yet, that will come with time." He opened his eyes, wide and startled, as she kicked him in the shin, glaring at him. "Okay, I'll give. Why do you want to walk so badly? It's just walking."

"Because I don't want to just have to wait if he comes back. I want to be able to run if I have to and fight him if I can. I don't want to be easy to hurt ever again. I want to heal, Jasper." She said it all in a fast rush and then looked relieved, as though she had finally said something that had been really bothering her. She pushed herself up and tried to stand, only to have Jasper pull her back into a sitting position. "Were you not listening?" She demanded angrily, pulling on his sleeve.

"I was listening," he said gently. "But you still can't stand up. You passed out, Maggie." She made an irritated face. "I know that you really want to be back on your feet doing things again, but you have to take the time to heal properly, or you aren't going to heal at all. You're obviously not ready to walk for long distances yet, but you can do short distances. That's progress, isn't it? And for now I'm just going to carry you and as you heal you'll be able to walk this sort of distance by yourself, okay?" He glanced at the doctor for confirmation. She nodded back, and they watched Maggie carefully.

Maggie bit her lip. "But your hand…you might hurt it worse. I'm not that heavy, but still…" We all glanced at Jasper's bandaged hand, which he was carefully avoiding contact with. I knew it was badly broken, I had felt the break myself after he punched the wall, but I had been told it had gotten worse due to some trauma while they were recaptured. And I had seen it in the house. He had to be careful. I wondered what to do, wondering if maybe I should help Maggie instead, or offer to go for a wheelchair. I decided to offer first to avoid being kicked at like Jasper had been.

"Maggie..." I said slowly. She turned her head to me, smiling slightly because we had all agreed with her when we had looked at Jasper's hand. I smiled back. "I can you help if you want. Do you want me to carry you or I could go get you a wheelchair or something. That way both of you can work on getting better." Maggie frowned, not sadly but thoughtfully, and I waited.

"I really don't think I need a wheelchair," she said, aggravated. She began to tear up, frustrated. She tried to stand for a third time, and I pressed my hands on her shoulders gently to push her down to the floor. She flinched. "Ah…" she mumbled, hissing with pain. I pulled my hands away, apologizing. "No, no. You're not the one who did this to me," she said. "Okay, okay, I'll give. Help me up."

I helped her stand up. "Okay, do you want to ride on my back?" She nodded and I helped her climb onto my back. A memory flashed through me, one of Jasper's birthday parties and a little girl I had been partnered up for in an event that had required someone to ride on the other person's back. I was pretty sure that Maggie had been my partner. "Hey, Mags…we're you at one of Jasper's birthday parties where we played a game like we were riding on someone's back?

She froze. "That was you, wasn't it?" She said, laughing. "You made me fly off, you ran too fast." I remembered then, running too fast and the girl, Maggie, freaking out and smacking me on the head. Then the thump as she fell over my head and hit the ground, and I had panicked because I was young and I was scared that I had killed her when she didn't immediately get up. Instead she had slowly stood up, got in my face, and told me quite plainly that I was 'the rudest, most careless boy' she had ever had the misfortune to meet. I wondered why I have never recognized her as this girl before.

It was a laughing moment for all of us, even Whitney, who wasn't there at the time that I had nearly killed Maggie at the birthday party. The laughing released some pent-up anxiety in us, and I felt myself relax, for the first time since I had realized that Maggie and Jasper were missing from the wardrobe. We were all together. We were injured and wiped out, but we had all made it through okay. Then I remembered that William was still on the loose, that we were in danger, that happiness was dangerous and would probably get us killed because we wouldn't be paying attention. As we stepped out into the main floor and Uncle B. went to get the car, I found myself back on high-alert, no longer relaxed, instead on guard for all of my friends, preventing anything from happening to them.

Maggie seemed to read my thoughts. Playfully, she lightly banged her fist against my head. "Hey, Henry, lighten up. We're going to be okay." I turned my head to look at her. "We aren't alone anymore," she insisted. "We have other people who can help us. Your parents are here. My dad can help us. Mr. Bartlett and Whitney's mom can help us. And if we feed them enough sugar, we can probably even release Whitney's little sisters as weaponry." I had to smile for a second at the image, of William Waingaurd, chronically insane criminal mastermind, being overtaken by two little girls running around and chattering in Russian. He'd probably take jail time before choosing to succumb to the shame of that. Whitney full-on laughed, as though Maggie wasn't far from the truth.

"Secret weaponry," Jasper said quietly. "I like it." His dad pulled up in the drop-off, pick-up lane, and I tapped Jasper and Whitney on the shoulder to get a hold of them through their giggles. "Oh, right," Jasper said. "Thanks, Henry." We stood up and walked into the car. I put Maggie in the middle, and Jasper and Whitney sat on either side, leaving me to take the front passenger seat.

When we arrived home, Whitney's little sisters, obviously high on sugar like Maggie had suggested, came rushing onto the driveway, laughing as they slipped and slid on the ice. I smiled and then looked around, my eyes darting towards every shadow. It wasn't me to get nervous like this. It made me feel sick, to be so wound up. I needed to meditate.

We all piled out of the car, I situated Maggie so that she was riding on my back again. Whitney crouched down to talk to her sisters, who were speaking non-stop in extremely fast Russian. She seemed to be keeping pace with the conversation, making startled and amused faces at different parts of the story and then hugging both her sisters, taking them by the hand.

"It's cold. I'm starting to think that perhaps we should head inside," Uncle B. said, glancing almost unconsciously at Maggie, who had begun to shiver. Her arms around my neck felt icy.

"Oh, right, right," Jasper said quickly, glancing at Maggie worriedly. He led the way into our house. "Wait," he added, realizing at the same time that I was. "I thought we were sleeping at the Winnock household. There is no way we'll all easily fit in there."

"Yes, you will be sleeping at Maggie's house, but we're all having a family dinner here," Uncle B. said. Warm air greeted us as we got inside, and soon everyone was hugging everyone. I handed Maggie to her dad, who carefully handed her the necklace that used to be her mother's. Mom attempted to squeeze the life out of me, and Dad thumped me on the back way too hard. Mr. Winnock was shaking my hand, Whitney's mother was saying something to me in Russian, I caught 'thank you' over and over.

Finally, things began to settle down. Everyone was heading towards the dining room. I felt a small tug on my sleeve. Wheeling around, I found myself facing Whitney's littlest sister. I kneeled down at her height and greeted her in Russian, wondering why me, of everyone, she had decided to talk to me. She smiled at me and hugged me tightly, confusing me. "Henry," she said, changing my name with a new accent. She smiled again and said something quickly in Russian.

"Sorry," I said. "English please. I'm not very good at Russian. Speak slower, please?"

The little girl made an unhappy face, tugging on her blonde hair. She spoke slower, but I didn't catch most of it. "English," I said, "English, please." Her face lit up.

"Are you going…are you going to be…" she started, faltering, stuttering as she tried to find the words. "You're going to be…my new…"

I waited as she thought. She, frustrated, said a word in Russian that I caught. I smiled. "Yes." She smiled back, hugged me again, and skipped off to talk to her sister.

I let myself smile.

_You are going to be my new brother._


	46. Chapter 46

Chapter Forty-Six

**My homework load has temporally reduced to a two-hundred pound load; it was at least at a thousand earlier this week. What that means is I can have some free writing time for now, though my schedule could fill back up in the blink of an eye. Ah…High School. It really makes you love the weekends. And sleep. Remember that time where your parents had to fight you to take naps?**

**I have only heard positive feedback on my plan to make a Maggie x Henry story, so you can consider that a guarantee. It's going to hopefully be a nice story, and will be just as well-received as this story was. I didn't have high hopes for it in the beginning and assumed I would just eventually drop it, but now it's the story with the longest word length in the whole Unnatural History category.**

** Along those lines, at the rate I'm going, this story will hit the a hundred thousand word limit on the chapter after this one. I'm going to be extremely happy on this day, because I never really expected, like I said, for things to get this long. Also, it's the last word-length milestone that our dear website has to offer, and beating the system makes me very happy.**

** I'm pretty sure that over the course of this story, I've had long enough Authors' Notes to fill up a whole book. It wouldn't be a very interesting book, very jumbled and confused with hyperactive ranting about cookies, colors, and reviews. Ah…reviews, don't forget to do that either.**

Jasper's point of view:

I was very, very glad to be out of the hospital. The first thing I did after the hugging, happy, how-are-you time was over was ask to go to the shower. Dinner wasn't quite ready. I used Dad's shower and Whitney used Henry and my shower. We would switch of when we were done. Maggie was going to need some assistance from Whitney; I had overheard Maggie telling Whitney that she would need help because she didn't really have fantastic balance. If she fell and hit her head, nothing good would come out of it. I really didn't want to do another concussion and hospital run; we just got done with that.

As the water rushed over me, I felt myself relaxing. The dirt of the terrible place and any possible remnants of Maggie's blood were finally gone. I calmed down. We were with adults; they were in charge of keeping us safe now. Our survival wasn't completely up to us anymore. I very carefully avoided washing anything with my hand, which I noticed had turned a nauseating shade of purple. Life was going to get complicated in this regard when my hand was set in a cast, I wouldn't simply be able to remove it for showers like I had my bandage. I tried opening and closing my hand carefully, wincing as the bones in my hands moved. I decided to stop the exercise and give my hand a break, instead focusing on shampooing my hair, which felt greasy and quite disgusting.

After I was done cleaning myself, I stepped out of the shower, wrapping a towel around myself, and carefully ran my fingers through my hair, a technique Dad had taught me when I was little and couldn't tell if all the shampoo was out yet. It had become an automatic habit. Partway through, there was a knock on the door of the bathroom. "Jasper," Henry called through the door. "Can I come in, please? I need to ask you something that I don't understand. It's important."

"Okay," I called back to him, feeling myself begin to panic, the feeling rising inside me like bubbles in a cup of soda. Henry opened the door and came in. "Okay, what is confusing you?" I asked him, feeling slightly relieved that he didn't seem terribly stressed out. Maybe everything was okay. "Is anyone hurt," I asked. He didn't immediately respond, seeming entranced by drawing figures on the mist on the mirror. He drew a smiley face and a stick-figure before I punched him lightly in the shoulder. "Henry, what is it that you need to ask me that was so important?"

"Oh, oh yeah," he said, wrinkling his forehead as though it was difficult to remember. His eyes lit up. "Why would they let Maggie pilot an aircraft?" he asked with a completely straight face. I expected him to at least be giggling or smiling if he was joking. Seeing that I wasn't responding, he added, "They said she wasn't allowed to pilot an aircraft. Why would she be flying an airplane?"

"Who told you that Maggie would be flying an airplane?" I asked, completely confused. I tried to make a hand gesture as I was so fond of doing during conversations, and nearly dropped the towel I was holding around my waist. I glared at Henry. If this was a joke, I was going to dismantle his hammock at the nearest possible opportunity. He was making both of us look ridiculous. He looked very serious though, I had to admit. It was really quite impressive. He did have such skills as a trickster.

"The doctor," he said very seriously. "Remember, Jasper? The doctor said she couldn't ride a bike, drive, or fly an airplane. Is an airplane a normal activity for teenagers?" He looked so confused that I had to laugh, which only seemed to make him feel even more confused.

"My poor, poor cousin," I said through my giggles. "You don't understand anything about American humor, do you?" Henry shook his head, his eyes still wide as he tried to understand things. "Do you remember that concept I was trying to teach you about awhile ago? That thing that American's do to be funny and they don't say what they mean? That sarcasm thing," Henry nodded slowly. "Well, that's what Maggie's doctor was doing. She was joking around and being sarcastic; she didn't really expect that you would think that Maggie would ever be flying a plane. It was all just a joke." I searched his eyes for comprehension. He looked still a little bit confused, between this and Rudolph it had been a hard day for him. Finally, he seemed to get it, much to my relief.

"So Maggie won't be flying a plane?" He said, clarifying for the last time. "That's a good thing, I guess." He smiled to himself and went back to drawing on the mirror, now in symbols in a language I didn't even have a name for. I thought about asking, but decided that the explanation would take too long and wouldn't be worth it anyway. Besides, I really wanted to change clothing.

"Okay, Henry?" I asked, unsure of exactly how to get him out of the room both quickly and politely to avoid offending the ninja cousin. Henry looked at me, his eyes wide and earnest. "I want to change clothing now, so can you give me some privacy? After that you can take your shower and you'll smell like something different from antique dirt. How does that sound to you?"

"I don't smell like antique dirt," Henry insisted. "I smell like the outdoors, it's natural instead of that crazy plant smell you teenagers seem so obsessed with. Do not be rude to my natural outdoors smell. This would be considered a mark of honor in many places, a sign that I had worked hard and done great things. Smelling like chemically plants would be something to be ashamed of."

"Where ever those places are, they aren't here, Henry. Or do we have to just have you stand on the rain?" His face lit up. "Forget I asked that." He looked less enthusiastic and turned and walked to the door and left. I quickly did my best to change with my one useful hand, managing to cause myself quite a lot of pain in the process and assure myself that I needed quite a lot of medication before I would ever try that again. After trying a few times to rewrap my bandage, I gave up. "Henry, can you help me? I can't wrap my own hand bandage and they want me to leave it on as much as possible.

"You wouldn't last five minutes outside of America," he teased, helping me to wrap the bandage. "Did I wrap it too tight?" he asked, seeing me wince. I shook my head. Wrapping it all ways caused it to hurt, and the bandage would help in the long run. Or so they told me. Henry continued to wrap my hand up. "You managed to break it pretty badly, must have had a lot of force behind your punch." He smiled as though reliving some sort of multicultural fight lesson from the days before he came to America, and then looked serious. "Don't do it again."

"Okay, thanks for the advice. Wasn't exactly planning on it anyway, at least not until this thing heals," I said jokingly, gesturing to my bad hand. Catching Henry's confused glance, I amended my statement. "I'm being sarcastic again, Henry. Don't worry; I'm not going to punch any walls unless I have a very good reason." I tried to think of a good reason for slamming my fist into a stone wall and came up blank. "Seeing as I can't find a good reason, I guess I'll just never do that again."

"Good plan," Henry said. "I'm going to take my shower now." I smiled and left the room to give him privacy, going downstairs to the lit fireplace. I was cold with my wet hair, and eagerly imagined the heat source. And soup, something I had consumed about a gallon of in the last few days, but could still muster up some enthusiasm again. It was food and I was a teenage boy, a starving one at that. Carefully going downstairs on the semi-slippery hard wood, I made my way to the bottom and sat near the fireplace, far enough away to not have to risk lighting my clothing on fire, but near enough that I could feel the heat warming me. Aunt Rose sat down next to me. She didn't say anything for a bit, just letting us rest in comfortable silence. I watched the flames leap and dance, remembering when I was little and used to see faces in the fire. _Mama, _I heard a little voice of myself cry; _the fire is looking at me again._ I felt my heart close up, trying to seal off all the memories of her, trying to not remember anything good. It was hard. Christmas always made me think of Christmas' when we were still together.

"Jasper," Aunt Rose asked. I turned to look at her. She was smiling very gently at me. "How are you doing?" When I didn't immediately respond, she added to her sentence. "It's normal to feel extremely stressed after what you've been through. Is there anything I can do to help you calm down or anything? I know that William is still on the loose, and there is nothing I can do about that for now, but is there anything at all I can do to help you four feel more at ease? Henry said he's been having trouble letting his guard down, I think he is still trying to feel responsible for everyone's safety. Are you having anything like that, Jasper?" She was looking at me so kindly that I had to admit to what had been going on, the endless anxiety and paranoia that someone was behind me always. The need to know where Henry and Whitney and especially Maggie were at every single moment of every single day and couldn't even feel like I was in one piece if even one of them wasn't in the room or I wasn't sure what was happening. I told her about hating my mother for leaving me and coming back, but not being able to really hate her because she was my mother after all and until the age of seven I had believed her to be the most perfect and beautiful woman in the whole wide world and believed she would always, always love me and Dad and her would always be there no matter what I did or what happened with her and Dad. I told her everything, even those terrible moments after Maggie was shot and I was so sure that she was dying in my arms. I told her about why my hand was broken, something that even Dad didn't know; that I had lost control when I lost her and couldn't handle how I was feeling. I began crying partway through as I remembered everything. Aunt Rose listened kindly, waiting until I had finished.

"I'm so sorry that you have had to feel all that, Jasper," she said when she was sure I was done. She handed me a tissue, and I blew my nose loudly, tossing it into the fire and feeling it flame up in a rush of heat against my cheeks. "Your feelings of insanity are completely normal, as is the losing control. I have felt it myself." I looked at her incredulously, and she laughed, and then darkened as she explained. "When I heard Maggie had been taken due to an issue that I felt partially responsible in, I felt very angry. It got worse when it was all of you. I didn't punch a wall, but I did cry and panic a lot. I thought you all were going to die. I didn't realize the bigger picture of what you had gotten yourself accidently caught up in. But anyway, these feelings are normal and they will go away if you give them time. You won't always feel paranoid, Henry won't always be carrying the weight of the world, Whitney will cease having to endure difficulties trying to speak privately with Henry in times when the world is falling apart, and Maggie won't always fight people just to be allowed to try staircases by herself." I must have looked horrified, because she added "Don't worry, we didn't let her. Henry helped her up." My heart relaxed, unclenching. "It's normal to feel like you are losing control of yourself if someone you love is hurt, or if you don't know how they are doing, especially in something as terrible and violent as what happened to Maggie when she was shot . Your reactions are just a sign that you care a lot about her and that you don't want something terrible to happen to her, which is both a very human and very normal reaction when you care greatly for someone. So don't worry, whatever was going through your mind was completely normal, there is nothing at all wrong with you." She handed me another tissue, which I blew my nose with and burnt, feeling more relaxed. "Besides, we don't want anyone to be sad on Christmas, if we can help it. This Christmas is going to be a big deal." I looked at her incredulously. "Yesterday, we had no clue where any of you were and if you were hurt or even alive. Today, we have you all back in reasonably good condition. It's an amazing miracle, Jasper. Of course we're going to celebrate it. We've been planning Christmas all of today when you were occupied at the hospital."

"Would rather be here then there," I said through my stuffed-up nose. We both laughed for no reason, just enjoying the released tension. I began to hear the movement of kitchen utensils, the soup was obviously ready. Aunt Rose stood up, telling me to come to the kitchen in a few minutes when I was feeling up to it, patted my shoulder, and left to go help with the serving of the soup. I wiped my eyes a couple times on the sleeves of my shirts, wincing as it touched the bruises where I had been hit all those times. It was going to take a long time to heal, both physically and mentally. Grabbing one last tissue, I cleared my nose, burnt the tissue, watching to make sure it had completely turned to ash, and prepared to stand up and head to the kitchen. Above me, I heard sets of footsteps moving around, coming near the staircase. Soon enough, Maggie appeared, Whitney assisting her. Maggie's face lit up when she saw me in such a joyful, childlike way that I couldn't help but smile back, glad that I had stopped my tears so that I wouldn't have upset her. I stood up to help make sure she didn't trip on the way to the kitchen.

Henry came down just as we were sitting at the table. He glared at me. "Where does Uncle B hide the shampoo? I had to wash my hair with a bar of soap, and it took forever!" He ran his fingers through is his hair, acting for a second just like me. I tried to see the similarities in us, but we were so very different. Only tiny behavioral things seemed to be the same. He continued to glare at me good-naturedly, not really mad at me but pretending to be because I had mistakenly played some sort of trick on him. Everyone else was listening, amused smiles on their faces. The soup was warm, the steam was in my face and warming me, making me feel comfortable and relaxed and full of the good smells of homemade soup, which was always so much better than canned soup. I wondered how to respond.

"I'll take the credit for that," Dad said, bailing me out. I turned to look at him. Aunt Rose looked at him eagerly, smiling in the hope of having something to tease her brother with. I wondered what Dad was like when he was my age. I don't think he was as serious and unsmiling as he was now. He was a lot more spontaneous and interesting and silly when I was little. Maybe Mom's leaving did that, I couldn't be sure. I tried to imagine Dad as a teenager, being silly and doing stupid stuff and getting into trouble. Learning to drive and falling in love and doing schoolwork and being stressed about stuff because his life was getting full and complicated. I was imagining him as a person, instead of my dad/principal. Dad, unaware of my internal reflection, continued. "I keep my shampoo in the top cupboard because Jasper once when he was very little decided that eating it might be a good idea. It's a force of habit now." Everyone laughed, and I felt myself turning red. Maggie squeezed my hand and smiled at me, as though she found my childhood stupidity endearing, instead of something I should blush about. I had been very little when it happened, only three or four, barely old enough to get the cap off of it with my chubby fingers. Dad had come in when I had only gotten a swallow in, making a face because of the disgusting face and covered in the pale blue-green substance that we were luckily able to get out of my clothes.

Everyone laughed and we began to eat the delicious soup. I was glad to see that Maggie managed to finish her bowl; her interesting eating habits had really begun to deteriorate with everything we had been though. She winced a little when she had to chew at all on the pieces of chicken because the stitches were across her temple, which of course made chewing annoying for her. The whole dinner conversation was a mix of English and Russian. Maggie surprised Whitney's mom and little sisters by adding to the conversation in Russian. After that, the little girls seemed completely taken with Maggie, talking almost exclusively to her, with only a few small comments directed to their sister or mother. I laughed. "Careful," I warned Maggie teasingly, longing for a joke to make everyone smile and laugh because it seemed to make us all relax. "They might decide to adopt you if you keep it up." Maggie smiled. I loved her smile so much, it drew all the pieces of my heart and mind together and held them in their original place. I squeezed her hand and she smiled at me, squeezing my hand back. I had to release her hand to feed myself some soup, there was no way at all that my broken hand was going to be able to hold a spoon, let alone get it anywhere near my mouth with any soup in it.

Maggie leaned forward at one point, not very much, but enough to make her slide in front of her shoulders instead of behind them. In the space between her collar and her hairline, I could see a huge amount of scraping and bruises on the back of her neck, extending down her front and down her back. I wondered if holding onto her had hurt her when I was crying. I hope it didn't. I wish she had said something. I felt my eyes fill for a second with tears, which I quickly blinked away and resumed talking. I would talk to her about that later. I wasn't going to hurt her anymore. It was a promise.

After dinner, Henry, Whitney, Maggie and I were all feeling a lot better with some food and water in us. Whitney's little sisters wanted to watch a Christmas movie, and, trying to preserve Henry from any further trauma, we decided on Frosty the Snowman, something I couldn't think of anyway Henry could be upset by it. Soon enough, the four of us and Whitney's little sisters were piled onto a couch. One of Whitney's sisters sat on Henry's lap, the other on mine. It was fine except for during the Frosty the Snowman song, where they had a habit of bouncing up and down to the music. Luckily they didn't way very much, but we had to struggle to keep them from falling off the couch. When the movie ended, Aunt Rose and Whitney's mom had made us some hot chocolate, which we were happy to drink. My hair had dried, and I wasn't very cold anymore, but there was something extremely comforting about a cup of hot chocolate. After finishing, it was time for us to head over to the Winnock house and go to sleep because we, especially Maggie, were completely exhausted. We considered driving over, but Maggie's dad didn't want her to get too cold, so we took the car. Whitney's little sisters also had to head off to bed, they were rolling out their sleeping bags, seeming both exhausted and completely excited for Christmas the next morning. I smiled, remembering when I had been the same way, and lead the way out to the car, promptly nearly falling on my rear due to all the ice that had collected on the driveway. "Careful," I called back inside. "It's very slippery out here! Don't fall down."

Eventually we all made it to the car, and piled inside the small warm area. I sat in the front, turning around to smile at Maggie, who was shivering despite the warm sweater we had had her wear. "Are you okay?" I asked her. She gave me a thumbs-up and smiled, but looked about as tired as I felt. I couldn't wait to finally get a full night's sleep. Mr. Winnock climbed into the driver's side and started the engine, waiting for the windows to clear so that we could drive safely and not have a Christmas-Eve accident. I winced internally; glad I hadn't said it aloud. Maggie would have thought of her mother. I had enough conflictingly sad-happy mother thoughts for the both of us. I wanted to spare her that at least. The windows cleared and we began to drive, making our way towards the house. "Maggie, is your pain medication still at your house?" I asked. "I want to take some for my hand, its acting up again."

"It's on the island counter in the kitchen, Jasper," Mr. Winnock said. "Feel free to use it if you are in pain. You too, Maggie," he said, looking at her in the mirror. "I don't want you trying to be brave or anything. If you are in pain, you need to take some and there is no shame in that? You've been badly injured and it's normal to need medication to help you while you are healing. So you shouldn't feel bad about it. Okay?" She consented, and he smiled. "That's my girl. Are you all looking forward to Christmas?" He said, smiling. "We've been having a lot of fun planning it. I'm quite excited myself."

We nodded, tired and mostly looking forward to just going to sleep, but not wanting to spoil everyone's fun when they had been trying so hard to make this a wonderful Christmas after everything that had happened. The car pulled into the driveway. "Watch your step," advised Mr. Winnock. "It's probably quite icy here too, I don't want anyone slipping or falling." I turned to glance at Henry, and he nodded, taking Maggie by the elbow to help steady her. She would fall if anyone would. We knew that.

Once inside, Mr. Winnock showed us the security system that was at both houses. "It works just like any other security system. Once we turn it on, an alarm will immediately notify the police if the doorknob is touched or if any window is open. If you need to go outside, there are these two buttons directly below the doorknob. Press down on both and the alarms will deactivate, allowing you ten seconds to get outside. If you need to get inside, we will use keys, which register the user to be someone safe. The buttons are also located beneath every windowsill. Okay?"

We nodded. I was feeling slightly overwhelmed, and I wondered if anyone else was too. Mr. Winnock unlocked the doors, letting us into the building. The door clicked shut behind us, automatically resetting the alarm. The house was huge and slightly scary when it was dark; Maggie clung to my arm as though frightened. I rubbed her shoulder, carefully avoiding pressure, remembering the bruises that I had seen at dinner and my silent promise not to cause her any pain. Henry flicked on the switch, filling the room full of light and making it instantly safe and comfortable instead of dark and scary. We moved to the living room where four pillows, three sleeping bags and a pile of blankets, obviously for Henry, waited for us. I began to spread out the blankets and sleeping bags. "Should we just stay in our clothes," I asked. Whitney guided Maggie to the couch and turned to face me, thinking.

"I don't really want to change," she said, "and I'm not sure exactly where my pajamas are anymore, so how about we just stick with our clothing." We all nodded in agreement. "But we really need to brush our teeth. I don't know about you, but my mouth tastes disgusting." I agreed with her, and we all went to the bathroom, Maggie giving us some spare toothbrushes so that we could clean our teeth. We all awkwardly tried to share the sink, standing too close together and timing when we spat out the toothpaste so that no one spit in anyone else's hair. It began to get so ridiculous that I started laughing and nearly inhaled my toothpaste, which, of course, gave everyone else the giggles.

We finally finished, full of the fresh, clean, way-overly-minty taste of toothpaste (that last comment was Henry's, who nearly gagged at the first taste.) We headed downstairs, remarkably no longer tired. "What time is it?" Maggie asked, still laughing. I glanced at the clock.

It's nine," I told her. She giggled. "I take it you aren't as tired as you were." She shook her head and smiled. "I know, I'm not tired either. Let's do something for a half-hour and then go to bed. We still need our sleep; we've all been through a lot these last few days."

"Okay," Henry said, nodding in agreement. There was an awkward pause as we headed downstairs. "So… what should we do?" he asked, looking at us. "Please no more Christmas movies. No offence to Frosty, but he shouldn't have been able to talk. Wouldn't that magic hat kill people if they wear it, if it brings inanimate people to life?" He paused thoughtfully.

"I can honestly say that I've never thought about that," Maggie said. "And I suppose that makes sense, Henry, but it's a kids movie, you can't just go around having people die, even if they are evil magicians. They just turn good in the end. It almost makes you wish real life worked that way too."

That made us sober up. William wasn't going to turn good. Santa wasn't going to come and save us. No amount of flying reindeer would get us back home if we were captured. And none of us had such big feet as that Karen girl did. I mean really, who is she, big foot's daughter? Whitney shook her head a couple of times to clear the sadness. "Okay, maybe we could do a puzzle?" she recommended. "Do you have any, Maggie?" She said, turning to Maggie, whose face had suddenly lit up.

"Are you kidding me?" She asked, beaming. "I love puzzles. I practically collected them when I was little. Jasper can vouch for that, can't you?" I nodded, remembering the one day I had let her convince me to do a puzzle with her, only to have her pull out a four-thousand-piece puzzle. She had looked ecstatic, the pictures her mom took showed me with my head on the table half the time, and the other half the time trying to escape through the doors. In my defense, my head starts hurting after about five hours of looking at a checker-board puzzle with absolutely no distinguishing features between the little squares. I nodded, wincing. "Don't worry, I'm not choosing the checker-board one, Jasper."

Maggie went to her hall closet and pulled down a box. "Nah, too hard," she said, putting it back. "I'm going to go for something in the five hundred piece range. Sound good?" She said to us. We nodded agreeably, and she pulled down a different box. "Here we go. I have had this since I was very little."

She walked slightly unsteadily to the coffee table in her living room and set the box down. It was a five hundred piece puzzle showing a picture of a group of puppies in a basket, some trying to escape. "Dad gave this to me when I was very little," she told us, opening it and shaking out the pieces on the table. "I recommend we start with the border and move inward."

Fifteen minutes late, Mr. Winnock came downstairs to find us all sitting around the table with the border and a few puppy faces on the table. Henry was in charge of sorting the brown from the white, because his method was to force the pieces to go together, which Maggie didn't like.

"Did Maggie get you to do a puzzle with her?" he teased. Maggie smiled and he smiled back, unable to help it. "I want you all to get some sleep, so make sure to get in bed once you assemble these canines, okay?" He kissed Maggie on the top of the head. "Night, sweetheart, I'm so happy to have you back." She put her arms around his neck in a hug before untangling herself and continuing the puzzle. He headed upstairs. Whitney held two small sections and lined them up, connecting them.

"Yes!" She said. "The blasted dog has his nose connected to his ear. Ha!" We laughed; it was so ridiculous that we couldn't help it. After that, it became a lot easier, the puzzle came together quickly and soon enough it was time for us to go off to bed. Henry and Whitney prepared to climb into their bags, propping themselves up on their elbows to talk to each other. Maggie and I climbed in too. She lay on her good side, facing me and smiled. I smiled back at her. She closed her eyes, evidently exhausted, and fell deeply to sleep. She looked like a little girl when she slept, it always made me remember our shared childhood if I saw her sleeping. I squeezed her hand lightly and then laid down, sleeping.

I awoke at some annoying time late at night. Everyone seemed to be asleep. My hand was throbbing terribly, so I got up carefully and crept into the kitchen, turning a light on and looking for the medication bottle. I heard footsteps behind me and stiffened, looking over my shoulder.

"Oh, hey Mags," I said, turning around to face her. "What are you doing up?" She seemed very tired and very pale, which worried me. Her arm was still wrapped in bandages from her elbow to her wrist. She looked a mess. "Do you need some of your pain medication?"

"You were gone," she said simply. She looked at the bottle in my hand. "Yes, please." She rubbed her head where the stitches were, and I carefully pulled her hand away. "Thank you," she whispered, smiling a little. I handed her one of the pills, taking one myself.

Maggie turned to go back to bed. I stopped her. "Maggie, I'm sorry, but really I have to know. Just how badly hurt are you?" She winced and turned her face away, obviously not wanting to show me. "Please, Maggie? I just want to make sure there isn't anything that I do that hurts you in any way." She mumbled something. "What's that? I didn't hear you."She stayed silent, looking at her feet with indecision. I brushed her hair out of the face. "It's okay," I said gently. "You can tell me."

"You don't hurt me," she said, rubbing her shoulder with the palm of one of her hands. Her eyes snapped up to meet mine. "You don't hurt me, Jasper. Sometimes I hurt myself by accident, but you don't hurt me. I don't want you to think things like that. None of this is on you. Okay?" She said it very seriously, but I knew she was covering something up; that there was some injury that she didn't want me to see. I wanted to know exactly what had happened so that I could be very careful with her. I wanted to know just how much I needed to hate the people who did this to her.

"Please, just tell me truthfully how badly you are hurt." She shifted from foot to foot a couple of times, seeming nervous, and then nodded, relenting. "Thank you, Mags," I said, smiling at her to show how grateful I was. She was looking at the floor and didn't see or smile back.

"You asked for this," she said darkly, rolling her eyes, a clash between frightening and humorous. "Okay. Let's start with what you know. I have stitches here," she said, pointing to her head, "and here," this time pointing to her arm. "I also have two or three damaged ribs, a concussion, and am pretty badly dehydrated something that is getting fixed." I nodded. "I also have a lot of bruises, mostly around my shoulders because that's what I hit first when I fall. And I have several scrapes. Besides that, I'm completely fine." She opened her eyes widely to show her sincerity. I sighed.

"Okay, good. I'm sorry you got hurt at all." I took her by the hand. "Let's go to sleep." We walked back over to our sleeping bags, turning the light off behind us. I crawled into mine, and she crawled into hers, lying right beside me. I took her hand.

"Jasper…" she whispered. "Jasper, I miss Mom." She sniffed a bit, as though about to start crying. I squeezed her hand gently and rolled over to face her in the darkness.

"I know. Don't cry though. Your mom is watching you and making sure you'll be completely fine. She loved you so much, Mags. I know it's hard, but try not to cry. Just be happy that she loved you to the end. It's terrible that he took her life like that and we'll have him arrested for it, but carry her memory with you and you'll never be without her, okay?"

"Okay," she whispered.

I squeezed again. "You're so brave, Mags." I paused, the briefest of spaces. "I love you, Mags."

She leaned over, putting her head on my shoulder. "I love you, Jasper."Her breathing became even as she drifted to sleep, and I fell asleep listening to her.


	47. Chapter 47

Chapter Forty-Seven

**Finals are over, and teenagers everywhere are decompressing. Except those of you who had your finals in December. In which case, you are done and are just laughing at me and my insanity because you're safe for the time being. Ah well. I'm not extremely worried about this upsetting feeing. There is time for that down this long, winding, and treacherous road called life.**

**This story just keeps getting longer and longer. That last chapter was over six thousand words, which is, by far, the longest so far. It amazes me that the first chapter all those months ago was only four hundred words, and it felt long at the time. How silly of me.**

** Speaking of which, I was right. This chapter will bring me past the hundred thousand word marker, making it, by far, the Unnatural History story with the most words. The next milestone after that is Chapter Fifty, and after that I think this story will wrap itself up shortly, and I'll be onto the Henry and Maggie story that I have all planned out.**

** I haven't said this in awhile, so here it goes: I do NOT own Unnatural History or any of the characters that appeared on the show at any point in time or were mentioned. Also, my anonymous review is on, so if you don't have an account or are simply too lazy to turn it on, you can still review on my story. I appreciate these reviews as much as any other type.**

** Head's up: There is Russian in this chapter. I have translated it to the best of my abilities, and those aren't exactly amazing. The English translation, to the best of my abilities, follows in Italics. Do not assume that this is being spoken or thought, it's only for the purpose of the reader, like subtitles.**

Whitney's point of view:

I awoke to a sudden weight hitting me and loud noises attacking my ears. _Ah, the little girls,_ I thought to myself, opening my eyes. Sure enough, my little sister, Katina, was sitting on me, staring into my eyes. "Vstavaĭ, eto Rozhdestvo!" _Wake up, it's Christmas! _ I sat up and pushed her off of me gently, setting her down at the edge of the sleeping bag. I remembered how it felt, being six years old and so excited for Christmas that you couldn't sleep for about a week before hand. My silly little sister, normally she tried to speak to me in English, which she was learning at the Russian School she went to at home, but she was too excited to remember any of the words now. I ruffled her short blond hair; we had started trimming it a few years ago when she took to getting gum stuck in it on a regular basis.

"Da, ya znayu, eto Rozhdestvo. Katina, gde Anya? Yavlyaet·sya li ona s mat'?" _Yes, I know, it's Christmas. Katina, where is Anya? Is she with mother? _Anya was the little one, only four years old, and spoke almost entirely Russian, with only a few words of English: Mama, sister, train, you, my, new, are, going (only sometimes), brother (very poorly accented), Dada (though she was too young to remember him very well), and a strangely accented 'thank you' that hardly sounded like English. If she was lost, there was no way she would be able to help herself. I began to panic. My little sister, my baby sister, don't let anything have happened to her. I tried to stay calm for Katina's sake. Anya had done it once before, leaving the house and wandering into the street. I had noticed just seconds afterwards, but if I hadn't, who knows what would have happened to her. I felt like I was screaming inside, I felt like I couldn't breathe. Nothing was safe. Not even the things I tried to protect the most, my sisters and my friends and my mother. "Gde matʹ? Ona zdesʹ s vami? Razve ona prishla syuda? Anya s nyeĭ?" _Where is mother? Is she here with you? Did she come here? Is Anya with her?_

"Anya priehala syuda so mnoĭ i mamoĭ. Mama na kuhne. Anya i ya prishel syuda dlya vas, i ya ne znayu, gde Anya." _Anya came here with me and Mama. Mama is in the kitchen. Anya and I came out here for you and I don't know where Anya is._ Katina looked terrified, the situation was starting to dawn on her. "Eto bylo tolʹko neskolʹko sekund, ona byla s nami tol'ko neskolʹko minut nazad, Whitney." _It was just a few seconds ago, she was with us only a few moments ago, Whitney._

I let myself breath. Just a few seconds, and I had been able to see the door out of the corner of my eye the whole time. Anya must be inside the house. "Vse v poryadke, milaya. Anya dolzhna bytʹ gde-to zdesʹ. Ah, gde zhe ·eeggi idti?" _Its okay, sweetie. Anya has to be here somewhere. Oh, where did Maggie go?_ Maggie was gone, as though she had mysteriously vanished just like Anya had. I looked at Jasper and Henry, but they both seemed just as confused as I was. She had been right there just a second ago. I heard a high-pitched squeal above me, and set Katina down on my sleeping bag, standing up and climbing the stairs. Sure enough, I found Maggie holding Anya, who had tried to make a pillow fort in Maggie's bed. "Careful, Maggie," I said. "She's really heavy." I took Anya from her so that she wouldn't hurt herself trying to lift my little sister. I hugged her too me, I was so relieved to have found her. "Ah, vot ty gde. Vy menya napugali, Anya. V sleduyushchiĭ raz, skazhite mne, gde vy sobiraetesʹ, ladno?" _Oh, there you are. You scared me, Anya. Next time, tell me where you are going, okay?_

"Da. Eto Rozhdestvo! Mozhem li my otkrytʹ nashi predstavlyaet syeĭchas? YA hochu posmotretʹ, chto svyatoĭ Nikolaĭ prines nam. My byli horoshie devochki, da?" _Yes. It's Christmas! Can we open our presents now? I want to see what Saint Nicholas brought us. We have been good girls, yes?_

"Da, da, u nas byli horoshie devochki, vy glupaya malenʹkaya devochka. My otkroem nashi podarki v blizhaĭshyee vremya, ne volnuĭtesʹ. Maggie, blagodaryu vas za pomoshchʹ mne naĭti Anya." _Yes, yes, we have been good girls, you silly little girl. We will open our presents soon. Maggie, thank you for helping me to find Anya._ Maggie smiled and shook her head, as though telling me that it was nothing. "Poĭdem, poĭdem ʹchikov i Katina dolzhno bytʹ interesno, gde my poshli." _Come, let us go downstairs. The boys and Katina must be wondering where we have gone._

We went downstairs, I was simultaneously carrying Anya, who trips almost every time she goes down staircases, and trying to help Maggie balance so she didn't trip down the staircase again and sprain her ankle again. When we finally got down to the bottom, Jasper looked up. "Oh good, you found her." I wasn't sure if he was talking about Anya or Maggie. He took Maggie's hand. "Maggie, you shouldn't have gone up the stairs by yourself? What if you had fallen? I would have gone with you if you had asked me, you frightened me there."

Maggie narrowed her eyes and bit her lip, and I wondered for a second if she was going to get irritated with his protectiveness. Instead, she brushed it off. "I was fine, Jasper. I thought I had heard Anya and it would be good to know sooner rather than later if she had gone outside. You don't have to worry about me so much; I can take care of myself." Jasper opened his mouth as though to contradict her, probably bringing up her doctor's talk on how Maggie's common sense would be impaired. She glared at him, and he closed his mouth, looking a bit frightened. "Really, I can take care of myself when it comes to simple tasks. You only have to look out if I'm trying to do something complicated."

"Okay, okay, fine." Katina jumped on him and started demanding when we would be opening presents and if he knew it was Christmas and had he been a good boy? He looked a little bit freaked out. "They weren't _kidding _when they said you two could be used as weaponry." He racked his brain. "No, I don't speak Russian. Can you try again in English?" She spoke again in Russian. "No, English please, English." He looked frustrated. Maggie and I laughed at him. He looked even more frustrated. "Come on guys, help me out. I really don't know what she is saying and I want to answer whatever she is asking me." I took Katina from him and explained that Jasper only spoke English and couldn't understand her if she was speaking in Russian. Only Maggie and I would understand her for sure, though Henry might understand a little bit if she spoke slowly. Anya listened for the first part and then got distracted, climbing face first into my sleeping bag and shrieking about the lights going out.

I sighed to myself, wondering why I had to get stuck with two hyperactive little sisters. At least her earache seemed to be better, right before I came to DC she had had a terrible ear infection and I had been up with her most nights. That had been even worse than chasing her and Katina down. "Anya, malenʹkaya, vybratʹsya iz spalʹnogo meshka. Vy ne malenʹkaya gusenitsa, vybratʹsya ottuda." _Anya, little one, get out of the sleeping bag. You are not a little caterpillar, get out of there. _She giggled, but didn't come out. "Dolzhen li ya poĭti tuda, i vy poluchite, Anya?" _Do I have to go in there and get you, Anya?_

She giggled and climbed farther into the sleeping bag. "Da," she said through the laughter. "Da, priĭti i poluchitʹ menya." _Yes. Yes, come and get me. _I sighed. I should never have given her the option. I looked at Maggie, who was laughing at me, and climbed headfirst into the sleeping bag, grabbing my sister around the waist and tugged her out. She laughed and tried to climb in again, but kept her away.

Henry's mom, who obviously came along for the fun of it or maybe to act as translators between my mom and Maggie's dad, came out of the kitchen to talk to us about the schedule for today, specifically when the little girls would be able to open their presents so that they didn't drive us all insane. "Okay, guys. Do you want to come over to Jasper's house and have Christmas? I understand you must be tired after everything you've been doing these last few days, but we're preparing breakfast and we figured you would probably be hungry too." She smiled at us, looking nostalgic as she watched my little sisters seeing how many times they could spin in a circle before falling down because they were so dizzy. "So, what do you think? What do you want to do about this wonderful Christmas day?"

"I'm ready for Christmas," I said, smiling at her. Katina and Anya, obviously understanding the word, perked up and smiled at me, murmuring to each other something about Saint Nickolas. Maggie and Henry and Jasper nodded along with me in agreement. We stood up. "I think we should all change clothes first." I said. We didn't smell as bad as we did before showering, but we were starting to smell unpleasant again, and I really felt self-conscious when that happened.

"We figured you would feel that way. We brought some of your clothing, Whitney and Maggie, just because it was out and about so you didn't have to go digging for it. Jasper and Henry, here is yours, I assume you would like some fresh clothing too." She smiled at her son and nephew, setting down a stack of girl's clothing on the couch near us, and another stack of boy's clothing next to it. I really liked Henry's mom. I could see a lot of her son in her, which made me feel relaxed around her. We all nodded, and I picked up Maggie and my own clothing and helped Maggie up, grabbing her around the forearm.

"Will you need my help?" I asked quietly, not wanting to embarrass her or call Jasper's somewhat over-protective worrying onto her if she really was fine. She nodded though, and I put one arm over her shoulder and we climbed up the stairs to the privacy of the hallway bathroom, which we felt more comfortable using than her dad's. She sat down on the toilet tiredly and I sorted out which clothes were mine and which were hers. "Okay, Maggie. I'm going to change first and give you some time to rest because I know we made you pretty tired. After that we'll have you put your clothing on, okay?" She nodded. I pulled off my shirt and eased the other, blue and clean one over my head. I had very recently become aware of a mess of cuts and bruises on my shoulders and upper back that I had no recollection of ever getting. There was a lot of things I couldn't quite remember though, some of which I was pretty sure were ways that my brain was working to preserve itself. "So…" I said, distracting myself and trying to talk to Maggie. "Does it bother you at all that Jasper is so protective of you? I mean…I feel some of that, like I have to make sure you're okay because you're hurt and because some things like this you need help with and I'm just better for jobs like this than Jasper or Henry or someone." She smiled a little. She looked tired again, even though she had just woke up. "But when Jasper fusses over you, does it bother you at all? I don't know if it would bother me if it was me and Henry, maybe if I was very sure of my abilities and he wasn't trying. Mostly I think I would be okay."

"Sometimes," she said quietly. "When I'm trying to do something like when I wanted to walk at the hospital and he wouldn't let me because everyone was too scared that I would get myself hurt or something. And I just really wanted to try, to prove to myself that I could, and he wouldn't. I understand that he's protective and that's because he loves me, I just…I don't get so annoyed that he's constantly trying to take care of me, I get annoyed that he forces that responsibility on himself. Or when I realize that he's feeling guilty for what happened to me back there, because he was there when I got shot and because he couldn't stop it from happening to me, they were holding him back, and really Whitney, it wasn't his fault, they made him leave, they would have shot him too." I yanked my pants on over my knees and hips and turned to look at her, nodding to tell her to continue. "It makes me sad that he feels bad about what happened. It wasn't his fault. It was their fault, they were the ones that hurt me and he did his best and he got his hand practically shattered trying to keep anything from happening." I felt my face go white and my stomach churned painfully, and she saw me glance incredulously at her. "His hand wasn't that bad…before it all. He just, they told him to step away and I couldn't get up, I was so messed up and Jasper thought I was asleep and he told them no, and he wouldn't get up because he was afraid of what they would do to me if he left and let them near me. He kept standing over me, I couldn't sit up or anything but I was awake and he didn't know I could hear him. So William, he took Jasper's hand and squeezed it until he threw up everywhere because it hurt him so badly. Jasper tried to pretend he was fine and it didn't hurt until he realized that I was awake. It hurt him a lot." I felt my own face go white as I tried to imagine how much that would have had to hurt him. I hadn't been paying attention to his hand, I was just so happy he was alive when we had assumed him dead. Stone on stone, it sounded so much like a gunshot. My brain recoiled against the memories, thrusting them back for a later time.

"Oh," I said, more of a gasp than a whisper. "Oh, oh my God, Maggie." I crouched down on the floor, kneeling, and wrapped my arms around her in a hug and pulling her to me tightly, not enough to pull her off the toilet, just enough to hold her close to me and feel for sure that she was real and with me, safe. "I'm so sorry." I pulled away from her, wiping my eyes on my sleeves quickly because I had felt them water when I heard about everything they had been through. My sleeve caught a small scratch on my cheek, causing me to wince slightly. Maggie looked at me with concern, and I quickly changed the subject. She was the one that we needed to worry about. "How about we get you changed?" She nodded, and I helped her change clothing. "Will you want to take some of your pain medication before we head out?" I asked her. She seemed to have been in pain when we tried to get the shirt over her head, but maybe that was just me. "We could always bring the bottle for you and Jasper if you want, but if you aren't feeling good, we should probably get some now. How does that sound to you?"

"Yes, please," she whispered. She looked on the verge of tears, and I took her hand, asking if she wanted to wait in here for awhile. She nodded and winced. "Yes, please." She touched the side of her head very gently. "Have you ever felt detached from yourself?" she asked me, letting her eyes go unfocused slightly for a few seconds as though remembering something. "Have you ever just felt like an observer in your life, like what is happening isn't really real and it isn't happening to you? And you are just there. And maybe you want to stop but you can't because you can't do anything? It's all just happening and it's like you're possessed. Do you ever feel like that, Whitney?"

"No, I can't say I've ever felt like that," I admitted, looking at her curiously as I tried to figure out where she was getting with all this. Had something like that happened to her? Was she talking about the behind the wall feeling from the medication? Was she feeling like that again? I really hoped she wasn't. I thought of my own example suddenly, remembering a time when I had felt similar to what she was describing, when we had been captured trying to find Maggie and I had been drugged and those moments before I had lost consciousness. The world had been a flickering mass of shapes and sounds and the impressions of colors. I would have been terrified if I wasn't so confused and tired. Maybe opening up to her would make her open up with me so I could figure out what was going on. "Well…maybe a little bit." She looked at me curiously, her eyes eager. I was getting somewhere. "When we were going to go find you and we got caught they wanted to make sure that Henry and Jasper would cooperate with them so they put me to sleep to make it hard for them to escape, because I was really out of it. When I was falling asleep, nothing really made sense and it didn't feel like it was me, it just felt like I was sitting there noticing the sounds of people talking and I didn't feel scared or anything. Is that the sort of thing that you're talking about?" I waited for her to respond. She nodded carefully. "Has it happened to you? Besides that problem with your medication a while back?"

Maggie stiffened and looked frightened, which was a good enough answer for me. "Maggie, what's been up with you? If there is something wrong you have to tell us. Are you okay?" She didn't look at me. I took her face very gently between my hands and directed her eyes to mine so that I knew she was looking at me. "Maggie, what's up with you? Are you talking about when you got shot or something? Did you feel distanced from yourself then?" She nodded. "That's normal, you had a head injury. Do you still feel that way?" She shook her head. "Okay, good. Has it happened any other times?" Maggie paused, hesitating for far too long, and then nodded much too quickly. "Maggie…" I said. "I have two little sisters and I know the tricks. Tell me the truth." She nodded sheepishly. "When did this happen?" I demanded. I felt slightly irritated that it was this difficult to get things out of her, and then I remembered something, a whispered conversation I had heard between her and Jasper. She felt like a bother. She felt guilty for causing us worry. She wasn't trying to be difficult with me; she thought that it was easier for us not to know even if she was terribly sick. I sighed. "Maggie, really, I need to know. You're not a bother." She nodded very slightly. "Okay, explain when you felt that way."

"At the hospital," she said quietly. I waited for more elaboration. She had, after all, been in the hospital multiple times. I couldn't possibly understand what specific incident that she was talking about. She glanced at me carefully and continued. "When I woke up, after the stitches, and I was panicking and we didn't know why. When I woke you up and scared you." I remembered that clearly, I had woken up to her screaming and thrashing in her bed and had felt completely terrified. I couldn't make her stop, no matter how much I tried. She had seemed inconsolable. Maggie seemed to be able to read my mind. "I couldn't stop. I didn't want to scream or anything, I just couldn't stop. I wasn't in control of anything, I didn't mean to scare you, Whitney, I just wanted everything to stop and I couldn't stop reliving everything that has been happening. It was horrible…" She buried her face in her hands.

"Maggie…" I said as gently as I could. "Maggie, I never thought you were trying to scare me or anything, I know you better than that. I only seemed so scared because I was so worried about you. I thought something had happened to you. That scared me, and I wanted you to stop because you looked like whatever was happening was hurting you, and I didn't want you to be in pain. You've had enough of that." Her eyes filled very suddenly with tears. "Oh, Maggie, don't cry please. We're all fine, we're all on the road to recovery and we're all going to be just fine, it'll just take some time and some rest and regular meals. You'll see, soon we'll be completely like we used to be."

Instead of being comforting, this seemed only to distress her even more. She shook her head quickly, which couldn't have felt good. I stopped her, demanding that she tell me why she was acting this way. She waited for a few seconds as though searching for words, before beginning to speak. "I don't think we'll ever be okay," she said quietly, brushing at stray tears in the corners of her eyes. "I don't think that we'll ever be like we used to be. Do you?" I waited, hesitating. I wanted to lie, to tell her that I had hope of going back to my old life unscarred, but I couldn't lie to her. She would see through me and she deserved honesty. I shook my head. "Me either," she whispered. "I just can't see it happening. I can't imagine just being able to go back to school like none of this insanity happened." Her voice turned bitter. "Everyone keeps telling me to get well, as if I'll ever be able to walk around the neighborhood early in the morning without looking over my shoulder and wondering if I am being followed. As if I'll ever be able not to cringe when someone comes up behind me, as if I'll ever be able to close my eyes without seeing William standing in front of me with a gun, or the pattern of my own blood spreading across Jasper's shirt. As if I'll ever be able to go to sleep without reviewing the alarm over and over and over in my mind. As though we'll ever really get to live, as though we'll ever really be able to feel safe again. None of this can happen until he's been caught, Whitney. And he's so difficult to catch. What if we spend the rest of our lives looking over our shoulder? It will not be life, Whitney!"

"They'll catch him. If they don't, we will." She laughed from behind her tears. "I'm serious, Maggie. It wouldn't be the first time something like that has happened with us. We're going to be okay. We just have to give ourselves some time." I hugged her. "Come on, let's get you some pain medication and head over before my sisters lose it. They're little demon children if they get too hyperactive about something, the special weaponry plan would backfire and they would kill us." I took Maggie's hands and pulled her carefully to her feet. She looked quite pale. "Or, if you want, I'll get the medication and bring it back up." She shook her head. "Okay then, let's go appease the holiday needs of the demon children."

"Sounds terrifying," she said, laughing. She wrapped one arm around my shoulder and leaned against me for support when we began to head down stairs. We could hear the sounds of my sisters running around laughing below us, Henry's attempts to try to converse with them in Russian, the sound of Henry's mom telling Jasper about stupid things his father did as a child, and my mom, cautioning the little girls to have some patience, that we would be down soon but Maggie had an injury that made it hard for her to go down stairs. The little girls then clambered to know what was wrong with Maggie, was she okay, was she feeling okay, how did she get hurt? My mom tried to stop them from being so intrusive. Maggie and I finally made it down the stairs. "Anya, Katina, ya zdesʹ! YA prosto prekrasno, my poĭdem yestʹ Rozhdestvo?" _Anya, Katina, here I am! I'm just fine, shall we go have Christmas?"_

It didn't take any understanding of the Russian language to see just how excited my little sisters were at that prospect. I helped Maggie into her sweater and got her some pain medication, which she took and swallowed, and we put on our shoes and headed out to the car. Maggie, Henry, Jasper, Mr. Winnock and I would ride in one car, while everyone else here road in the other car that was equipped with my sister's booster seats. I strapped Anya into hers while Mama made sure that Katina had gotten hers back correctly together. "Proshchaĭ, Anya. Proshchaĭ Katina. YA uvizhu vas v blizhaĭshyee vremya." _Goodbye, Anya. Goodbye, Katina. I will see you soon._ They waved at me, excited and ready to be off

Climbing back into the car next to Maggie, I felt my eyes suddenly water as a pang of loneliness for my Papa. I wished he was here, that we all could be together, happy and laughing. Anya could, she didn't remember him, and Katina only remembered a few tiny things but didn't miss him terribly. This ache was for me and Mama. I blinked back the tears. Jasper and Maggie knew how I felt, and surely Henry missed his parents when he was in a different continent for long periods of time and his contact with them was up to the whims of technology. I wasn't alone. I put on a smile and waited for arrival.

When we arrived, Katina and Anya were trying to make a snow angle, the joys of Christmas temporarily forgotten. They loved snow, it was one of the many things they had been less-than-thrilled to leave behind when we went to Georgia. That and understandable accents. They still, with their limited English understanding, couldn't get the accent down and utterly refused to mimic that way of speaking. I took them both by the arm and lead them inside. They really weren't dressed for snow.

Inside, we were surprised by the festive decorations, complete with a fully decorated Christmas tree. The tree itself had been propped up in the corner yesterday, but had been bare, looking more like an overenthusiastic lumberjack's mistake than a Christmas celebration. Presents were piled up under it. The house was full of wonderful smells of home cooked food, including breakfast, which made me very happy because we hadn't eaten yet. My stomach growled, and Henry glanced at me, obviously able to hear it. "I'm very hungry," I told him sheepishly, feeling my face burn slightly.

"It's okay, it does smell very good," he said. "I'm hungry, too." He glanced at Jasper, who nodded to show that he, too, felt the extreme need to put food products into his stomach. Maggie was the only one who didn't seem to feel really hungry, which worried me. I hoped her appetite would come back with time. Maybe the medication was suppressing it. We headed into the kitchen and sat down at the table, using the same spaces as the night before, even though many people had already eaten. Most of the adults sat down with us, holding cups of coffee in hand, and asked us how we were feeling.

"Did you sleep well?" Jasper's dad asked us. "You seemed so tired last night, we were wondering if we would be able to get you up at all this morning." He smiled, very friendly and happy and glad to be talking to us. A dramatic change had taken place in the hospital. He was a whole different person; hopefully one that Jasper would be able to feel more loved by.

We assured them that yes, we were completely fine and had been extremely well rested, and began to eat some pancakes. Maggie had to chew very carefully, but managed to stomach it just fine. Mama came up and kissed me on the cheek. "Dobroe utro, moya dochʹ. Kak vy sebya chuvstvuete? Ne toropitesʹ yedy, ne pozvolyaĭte vashyeĭ sestry toropitʹ vas. Ya skuchal po tebe ochenʹ mnogo, ya tak rada, chto vy vernulisʹ." _Good morning, my daughter. How are you feeling? Take your time eating; don't let your sisters rush you. I have missed you very much; I am so glad that you are back._

"Dobroe utro, chtoby vy tozhe, mama. Schastlivogo Rozhdestva. Ya skuchal po tebe tozhe ochenʹ ponravilsya, i Anya i Katina. Skazhite im, chtoby ne volnovatʹsya, ya budu delatʹ dostatochno skoro i my mozhem imetʹ Rozhdestvo v blizhaĭshyee vremya." _Good morning to you too, Mama. Happy Christmas. I have missed you very much too, and Anya and Katina. Tell them not to worry, I will be done soon enough and we can have Christmas shortly. _Mama said she would and quickly ran her fingers through my hair, reorganizing it perfectly. "Spasibo, mama." _Thank you, Mama._

"Ne stoit, eto moya rabota, kak matʹ, i vashi volosy ne sovsem verno. Moya krasivaya devushka, moya prekrasnaya dochʹ. Ya tak volnovalasʹ, Whitney, ya prishel srazu zhe. Moya krasivaya devushka." _Do not mention it, it is my job as your mother, and your hair was not quite right. My pretty girl, my beautiful daughter. I was so worried, Whitney, I came up right away._ She saw my eyes fill with sudden tears as I imagined her wondering if she had lost yet another. She brushed away my tears. "Ulybaĭtesʹ, eto Rozhdestvo." _Smile, it is Christmas. _I smiled, watery but happy, and she seemed pleased, leaving to take care of my sisters, who were attempting to kill the springs in the couch by jumping on them.

We sat in awkward semi-silence for a few minutes, finishing our breakfast, not wanting to go fast and not wanting to go too slow either. It was like being in limbo. I had to be careful, I knew. I hadn't been eating very much solid food, and suddenly was beginning to put it in my system, which could make me sick if I wasn't careful. I finished and helped Maggie up, bringing our empty bowls to the sink. The boys followed soon after, having eaten a little more than we had. Boys, they make me laugh.

Anya and Katina crashed into my legs in their excitement to begin Christmas, nearly toppling me, and, as she was using me as a support structure, Maggie. I reached backwards and pushed my hands into the arm of the couch, steadying us. Maggie gripped onto my shirt and clung to me, frightened of falling. I bent down to Anya and Katina's level, preparing to have a stern talking with them. "Anya, Katina, vy dolzhny bytʹ ostorozhny. Maggie ne ... ona byli raneny, pomnite? Vy dolzhny bytʹ ostorozhny s nyeĭ, ona ne mozhet igratʹ, kak grubaya s vami, kak ya mogu."_Anya, Katina, you have to be careful. Maggie isn't…she's been injured, remember? You have to be careful with her; she can't play as rough with you as I can._ They nodded, looking slightly terrified, and I felt bad. I ruffled their hair. "Horoshie devochki. Teperʹ peryeĭdite k vashemu podarki, vremya ne dolgo." _Good girls. Now go to your presents, the time is not long now._

The girls were over their guilt immediately, squealing and rushing to the tree as though it would be gone if they waited around for just a few more minutes. The tree felt foreign, none of my familiar childhood ornaments hung on its branches. I was happy though. I had Christmas, my sisters, my mom, my friends, and something that you can call safety but isn't quite there yet but was hopefully nearby, instead of sitting in a stone room, captured, like I had been just a few days a go. William was far enough away. I could breathe for now. I squeezed Maggie's hand; she was still clinging to my arm, still frightened of falling, even though the danger had passed. "Are you alright?"

"Yes, fine. I just got taken off-balance and it frightened me." She released my arm and smiled at me. I smiled back at her, relieved. "Shall we go before we become target practice again?" Maggie said cheerfully, gesturing towards my sisters, who were spinning in circles as though searching for some sort of target to release their pent-up energy upon. I prayed that it wouldn't be anything fragile.

We had a very nice Christmas; some gifts had been purchased so that we would have something to give each other. Jasper, for some reason, seemed to be on the game. He stood up and got something from a hiding space, handing it to Maggie. She opened it carefully and then stopped, beginning to cry silently. Jasper put her arm around her. "I'm sorry, Mags. I didn't mean to hurt you, your dad let me give it to you, he gave it to your mom once as a birthday present."

"I'm not sad, I am just very, very happy and they look about the same sometimes. I love it," she whispered, hugging him back. "I remember her wearing it once. It just startled me because I didn't expect it and I hadn't seen it in such a long time, I'm glad that I can wear it to remember her." Jasper smiled and turned his face gently into her hair, glad that he had been successful. Mr. Winnock looked on proudly. Jasper turned his face back out of her hair, either to breath or to stop breathing on her, I didn't know which, and rubbed her arm gently. Anya jumped at Jasper when he didn't suspect, knocking him over so that he ending up with his head partially under the Christmas tree.

"I have never, in living memory, had the joy of looking at a Christmas tree from this angle," he said jokingly and then grunted as Anya jumped on him, landing on his chest. "Of…" he grunted as though the air had been knocked out of him. He was laughing, though, so I was pretty sure that he was fine.

"Why…why on the floor," Katina asked, tilting her head and looking down at him. She took Anya's hand. "Anya, vy dolzhny vstatʹ i s nego. Vy ubivaete Jasper. On budet idti vrazrez i umirayut, potomu chto vy yego splyushchennye ploskie." _Anya, you must get up and off him. You are killing Jasper. He will go flat and die because you squished him flat._ She said it very severely, as though she believed it. Anya got up, looking scared and clutching her new doll that Mama had gotten her for Christmas. Katina's matching doll was tucked under her arm, smashed up against Katina's side as she pulled Anya up.

"What are they saying?" Jasper asked me. "I heard my name." I brushed him off, too busy convincing them both that Anya was not killing Jasper, and they shouldn't be scared, although sitting on Jasper for too long might make him upset. It only took a few minutes. Jasper then proceeded to ask again. "Whitney, what were they talking about? Katina said something about me."

"She thought Anya was going to kill you by flattening you. Its okay, they're fine now. I smiled and rolled my eyes to say small children, they can be so silly. He nodded as though he understood, but he couldn't possibly. He never had a brother or a sister. It had always been just him, and then later, Henry. I smiled anyway, and turned to go speak with Henry.

Later, we had dinner (we didn't really have lunch; we just had some snacks partway through the afternoon. I tried to limit Anya and Katina's sugar intake throughout the day, but to no avail. Luckily, they were still hungry for dinner after burning out all their energy playing in the snow. I went out with them, Henry coming with. Maggie could only come out very briefly, and Jasper decided to stay with her so that she wouldn't feel left out. Dinner was good, and desert was delicious. I felt tired again, and I wondered if I would ever feel like a real person again, or if I would always be feeling some sort of tired from everything that had happened. I wanted to feel alive again. I felt dead.

We decided to watch one last Christmas movie before we all went to bed. My sisters, Henry, Maggie, Jasper, and I all piled onto the couch and watched A Christmas Story, a story about a young boy who wants to own a gun. Maggie shivered and looked frightened whenever a gunshot was heard, and Jasper and I both squeezed her hands so that she wouldn't feel so scared. I imagined that the sound brought back really bad memories. It was Christmas; I didn't want her to be sad on Christmas.

Partway through the movie, Anya fell asleep on my lap, and soon after Katina went to sleep on Henry's lap. I felt about ready to do the same, Maggie looked ready to join me, but was unable to due to the stressful sound of a Red Rider BB gun. Finally, as the credits began to roll, I looked over to see that Maggie had gone to sleep, leaning on Jasper's shoulder. "I think we should head back," Jasper said, carefully playing with her hair. Maggie's dad, who was standing behind the couch, agreed with him and went to start defrosting my car. I tucked my little sisters into their sleeping bags, tucking their dolls next to them so that they would easily see them when they woke up.

I turned to Jasper, who was still sitting on the couch and looking uncertainly at Maggie. "Is she okay?" I demanded, worried that I was going to start having to use my sketchy knowledge of CPR. _You push down on their chests and magically they come back to life. Yeah…more likely than not I would kill her myself, I wouldn't be able to help her. _I stared desperately at Jasper, willing him to tell me I was wrong, that she was fine, that I had misunderstood.

Sure enough, Jasper responded, "Oh, she's fine. I want to pick her up, but I don't want to hurt her and I don't want to wake her up because she's been so tired lately."

"Oh," I said, relieved. "Oh. Here, I'll help you." I carefully pulled her into an upright position, and Jasper picked her up carefully, cradling her gently against him. Kissing my little sisters on the forehead, I called goodnight to my mother and followed Henry and Jasper out to the car.

"Did you have a nice Christmas?" Mr. Winnock asked, smiling at us from the rearview mirror and glancing at Henry, who was in the passenger seat and couldn't see him smiling.

"Yes, thank you," we responded politely. We spoke quietly so that Maggie wouldn't wake up, but she was probably so exhausted that a bomb going off wouldn't wake her anyway.

We pulled up the house, carefully exited the vehicle and went to the living room to prepare for bed. Henry stopped me, tugging on my elbow. "Merry Christmas," he said gently, and kissed me gently.

I turned bright red and blushed like a little girl, which he laughed at. I hid under my sleeping bag so no one would see and smiled until I fell asleep.


	48. Chapter 48

Chapter Forty-Eight

**Oh, I'm so sorry! School's been hectic and I haven't been well and I have a concert coming up soon, so life has been a little bit crazy. Anyway, back to this story…hope you enjoyed that last chapter. This next one will be pretty short. Variety in chapter lengths, that's always a good idea. Also I wanted to get back to this story before I became completely distracted and forgot all about it (that would have been very annoying, wouldn't it have been?)**

**By the way guys, not to sound whiny or complaining or anything…but there has been a SERIOUS dip in reviews. I mean, SERIOUS, I used to get a few per chapter, and now I'm lucky if ANYONE responds. I understand that life can be pretty crazy, but if you have the time to read and review, please do! Feedback is always appreciated, so long as it is done in a kind and respectful fashion. If you are impolite to me, I will send my impolite ninja after you and he will fill every bathroom in your house with such impoliteness that your toilet will spray you in the face with a jet of water every single time you come in. You have been warned.**

** As a reminder, you can review without being logged in. My anonymous review is on, so feel free if you can't/don't feel like/too lazy too/have a broken sign-in button/have suddenly broken an arm and can't control your mouse/ don't know how to sign in or just simply don't have an account, you can review if you want to.**

** I do NOT own Unnatural History or any of the characters that appeared on the show at any point in time or were mentioned. **

** Note: this chapter delves into Jasper's fear of the dark based on what happened when his mother left him, which is reopened by the events surrounding his own capture. He gets pretty emotional at times. I hope it doesn't seem terribly out of character, but I think by this point, almost everything can be in character for them.**

Jasper's point of view:

I awoke to the feeling of drowning in pitch-blackness. It was something I hadn't felt for several years, something from my long ago fear of the dark, something that I had left behind a year or two after Mom had left me behind, but had never really dealt with. I hid it under the bed of my mind, the way I used to shove things under my bed when I was little if I didn't want to clean them up; they were gone but not really gone and sooner or later someone or something would pull them out and, like fresh injuries, they would set to stinging and smarting with all the pain I had just been able to leave behind. I was underwater. I was underwater in a sea of blackness, and suddenly I was a little boy again, a tiny child lost in the wide, deep, heavy expanse of a great big bed in a great big room in a great big house in a great big world. I thought about crying out for my father, the way I started to when I realized just how much it hurt him when I cried out for the mother that wouldn't ever return to me and comfort me from a nightmare.

My mouth opened to frame the call, but I bit my lip, refusing to let myself cry out. Dad wasn't here; he wouldn't come rushing to save me from an imaginary monster. And I was grown now; there was nothing to be afraid of in the dark. Dark is merely the absence of light. _It is natural, it is the way the world works, there is nothing hiding in the dark. There is nothing waiting in the dark. The only ones here are you and the rest of the people that you already know, there is you and there is Henry, and there is Maggie, and there is Whitney, and somewhere upstairs there is Maggie's dad, and there is some spiders and those rats maybe, if they haven't left. Probably not because it's so cold and it's probably warm in here for them, they probably won't leave until spring or summer at the very least. Those rats…we would never have found her if it wasn't for those rats and that camera…_

As much as I tried to comfort myself from the old fear, I couldn't manage to. It was as though every speck of light in the room had been swallowed, silenced by a shadowy, heavy monster, something that sat in the dark and watched me, watched us all, and was so heavy that I could barely breathe, its glowing eyes just out of reach…just a few inches away from me sat its giant teeth, open and bared, waiting to bite my hand, and it would bite me if I moved and would bite me if I didn't and the only thing I could do to stop it was not to make a choice, to not move my hand but not decide not to, to hover and wait until the silence and the waiting would be too much, until my heart would shake and rattle into pieces and the monster would hear it's answer and bite me until the blackness would be inside me…and I would never wake up…the blackness would never lift.

I had loved the dark until she left me in it. Until she had made me sit on a picnic bench and wait, knowing full well that she was never coming back for me. In that night, that darkness that I thought would never end, I began to fear the stretching expanse of time, the long endless thick darkness. Alone in it, with the mind of a child, I was able to imagine terrible monsters in the woods all around me, in the world surrounding me in endless quantities, monsters that to me had been there all along in the dark, but her presence was keeping them away. I was able to call it stress or nightmares or natural childhood anxiety at my age, but I wanting to rid myself of it, I saw it as an unjustified fear. So I had rid myself of it forcefully, explaining to myself in terrible child's logic, that the monster had changed its mind, that it would kill me for knowing it, and if I could only manage to not know it, to rid myself of it and never remember that it was there, that it would go away. And it worked. But I had felt it rise in me somewhere in the night in the forest, looking for Maggie and knowing in a dreadful pessimistic part of me that the end wouldn't come that night, or if it did it would be the end of everything and we would all die in that forest, we would all die in the dark…that the monster awoke once more within me. She had left me in the dark. They had left Maggie in the dark. The monster was in the dark.

_Or maybe, _I thought to myself grimly, _the monsters don't wait for you to be left in the dark…the monsters are the ones who leave you in the dark to see what you'll do without light or love or companionship. _I shook my head, refusing. _I am being a child. There is nothing in the dark. It's just a childhood fear and after what has happened it's only natural for some of it to revisit me. Only natural that some part of my old fear could come out of something so similar to what I always feared. I can get rid of it again. It'll take some time. Nothing is in the dark. Nothing is in the dark. Nothing…_

Someone cried out in their sleep, and I flinched, jarring my hand against the edge of the couch and biting a pillow to keep from crying out in pain. I hissed between my teeth. There was no way to get to sleep now, so I decided to get up for some pain medication and maybe sit up for awhile in the kitchen, where I could turn lights on and not disturb anyone. I sat up uneasily, and nearly cried out as I felt a weight upon my legs, pressing down on me. I reached my hand out gingerly and felt Maggie's shoulder. She had rolled over onto me in her sleep. I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Hey, Mags," I whispered. "I'm getting some pain medication. Do you want any?" I figured that if she was awake she could come get some with me and we could wait for it to kick in together, and if not she would sleep through me annoying her, and no harm would be done. She didn't take her pain medication when we brought her back here. I didn't want to wake her, I had just let her sleep, but she would probably wake up sometime tonight anyway simply because of the pain. I tapped her on the shoulder very lightly. She mumbled something and rolled over, tipping her face under her arm so that I couldn't bother her, her subconscious defense against me.

"It's okay," I told her, knowing she wouldn't hear me anyway but enjoying talking to her anyway. You can sleep. I won't let you forget your medication." I kissed her on the forehead, and she mumbled something that sounded a lot like she was talking to her mom. Her mom used to kiss her on the forehead when she was in bed, I remembered that now. I felt my throat swell up with sadness for the holes left in both of us from out moms, and I turned quickly and stumbled into the kitchen, pressing my forehead against the cool glass of the window to keep myself from crying. I had temporarily forgotten about the pain medication. I was being way too emotional, it was as though Christmas and the closeness and the family and everything, combined with her coming to the hospital, just everything was combining with the stress and I was falling to pieces.

A hand suddenly landed on my shoulder, and I cried out, surprised. I prepared to try to run and sound the alarm before I heard the voice that the hand was attached too. "Good extremely-early morning, Jasper. Is there a reason why you are up? Are you alright?" It was Maggie's dad, he sounded concerned and not at all angry. I hoped I hadn't awoken him up by walking around. I turned to look at him to make sure he wasn't mad. He looked slightly tired and a little mussed-up from sleeping, but still friendly.

"I couldn't sleep," I confessed, thinking back to my worry of the darkness and feeling ashamed. "There was too much going in my head and I couldn't relax." He continued to look at me, as though expecting more, a reason as to why I wasn't sleeping. "I'm scared…" I admitted. "I don't like the dark and I'm scared and everything that happened keeps going around in my head…like I won't ever be able to forget it, it's too burnt into me, and I just want it to go away because I keep hearing his voice and the gunshot…I keep seeing it over and over and I feel like either it must die, these memories, or I will because I feel like I am falling to pieces…" I put my head back against the window pain, trying to keep myself from crying.

He sighed. "I'm sorry, Jasper. I know what you are feeling and I'm sorry you have to feel this way." I looked up at him. "I have felt this way a lot of the time. You know, after all the missions I've been on, a good amount of the time I come back home and would feel exactly like you are, like I was being followed and I couldn't get rid of the memories of what happened, especially if something had died. And I promise you, Jasper, someday you won't have to live in fear. We will catch him and you will be safe and you won't have to live constantly being frightened of your shadow, but for now that is normal, and I'm sorry." He paused, biting his lip slightly and looking very much like Maggie. "Would you like to go on a walk with me?" he offered. "I find it helps. We won't be gone long, and William is in another area."

I agreed, and we pulled on our coats and shoes as quietly as we could. I left a note for Henry, Whitney and Maggie, explaining where we were going. With any luck, we could come home before they awoke and we wouldn't need it. Mr. Winnock turned off the alarm and smiled at me. "Ready?" I nodded, and we left the house into the chill wintery air. My breath exploded in a cloud in front of my face in the cold air, and I watched it dissipate, flying away from me. The world seemed to hold its breath, and it felt only right that I hold mine. We stood on the steps in silence for a few seconds, and then, as though by an unspoken mutual agreement, started on our walk.

We didn't say anything for awhile. I felt like I ought to apologize for what happened to Maggie, but I couldn't figure out how. I didn't want to say it like I was scared of him, and I didn't want to say it as though I was a depressed mess, but if I seemed confident or not sorrowful, it would seem like I was laughing at him and his daughter. I bit my lip, trying to figure out what to do. I opened my mouth, closed it, opened it again, closed it again and repeated until Mr. Winnock cleared his throat. "Is there something you want to say, Jasper?" He asked me, smiling. "You look like you are on the verge of speaking, son."

_Son, he called me son. Well, I guess there isn't anything too much more accepting than that. _I braced myself. "I'm sorry," I said, looking at him as earnestly as I could. He looked at me as though I had suddenly lost my mind. I wondered just how long it would take me to run back to the house and hide. The ground was slick. There was no way I would be able to make it quickly. "I'm sorry for what happened to Maggie." He narrowed his eyes, still looking confused, and I gulped. _Elaborate, Jasper. _"If I had tried harder, I might have been able to stop her from getting shot. I wasn't able to. And I'm sorry. It's my fault that this happened." I bit my lip hard as I felt tears beginning to start, immediately beginning to freeze to my face in the cold December air. "And so I'm sorry."

"Jasper…out of all the people I want to hurt for what happened…you couldn't be farther from the list." I looked up at him. "Do you know how angry I am with myself? For creating this situation, for realizing that my job got my wife murdered and my daughter almost killed? There are things that happened that I don't know about, things that I will probably never know about…she wouldn't still be here if it wasn't for you. I know that he was going to shoot her once before, and you kept it from happening. I know that the reason you got recaptured was trying to save her from being poisoned. I know how hard you worked to keep the both of you alive. I know what happened to your hand, Jasper. Most people at the hospital believed that you had fallen out of a tree on it or something, but Maggie told me how it came to be nearly shattered. Out of all people, you're one of the people I wish the least grief in this. I can't believe he used to be my friend. I can't believe that I ever was able to trust him. When we catch him…I can only hope that I won't be found guilty of murder."

I shivered at the look in his eyes, but I was glad that he wasn't angry at me, that I wasn't the one on that other end of his eyes or his gun. I wiped the last of the semi-frozen tears off my face, chipping them off with my nail. There were the soft sounds of a door opening and closing somewhere nearby, but the soft footsteps on snow only seemed to isolate us further. I swallowed, preparing to ask something I had been wondering about for a long time. "Mr. Winnock?" I asked. He turned to look at me, giving me permission to speak. "Excuse me if I'm asking a question you don't want to answer…but how did you know…how did you…how did you come to meet him?" I was sure he would know who I was speaking about. His eyes narrowed, and for a second I was terrified that I had touched a nerve, that I had been too nosy.

"You mean how I came to meet William?" I nodded. "William and I were friends when we were about your age. We were partners in school. William was brilliant, his science projects were fascinating and usually quite a bit dangerous. We decided very early on that we were going to go into the air force together." I looked at him incredulously. "Oh yes, William was good when he was young. There wasn't a mean part of him at all. He felt that we were doing the right thing. And one day, when we were very young and new to the force, we had our first real mission. We were both ready and…we were eager to go. But we were too late. Not so late that we missed the crisis though. Late enough merely to see many people die and be unable to stop it. And something happened to him that day. He began asking questions, strange questions that I suppose should have worried me. He asked me about death, did I ever think of killing people, did I ever think of what it would feel like to kill someone. I thought he was fooling around. I said no. He told me I had no imagination. He told me that he thought there would be so much power. I told him that he was being sick and he yelled at me, telling me that I understood nothing. I rushed away from him because I didn't want to fight with him. When we came back the next day, the whole building had been trashed, and William was gone. We assumed that he was suffering from the stress of what we saw or something. He was gone for years, but no one went out and looked for him. We all assumed he would come back when he was ready, and then everyone but me just seemed to forget about him, paying him no mind. Then people started coming up dead, and it was traced to him. We understood then that…I knew that William was gone."

He seemed very sad at what came next. "So one day, I went out looking for him. I wanted to believe that he was still in there somewhere. That he was just mentally so ill, that maybe he had become crazy in some fixable away. I thought that maybe he would know me. I didn't want to believe that he could kill all those people in cold blood." He smiled at me. "I was foolish. I did find him, it took me a week or so, but I tracked him down. I went and found him myself; I didn't want anyone to come along. I thought that I could talk sense into him. When I confronted him, he recognized me. He even greeted me with our old secret handshake from when we were young. He asked me how I was, and I told him I was married and had a little girl. He asked me if I had come to join him. I told him that I had come to ask him to come back, and he got extremely angry. He told me that I had no idea of the power that he had given himself. I told him he was a murderer no better than the people we saw that day when we were young, and he drew his gun. He asked me very calmly to come with him. So I did. I was afraid, but I wanted to believe he would never hurt me. We walked for awhile and a small boy ran in front of us, chasing a soccer ball. William asked me if I knew the boy. I told him I didn't, and he pointed the gun at him. I told him that he had lost his mind, and he said that he hadn't, he had found some part of himself, a part with an amazing power, that he could kill that boy, end his life, have that power. I tackled him and called in for backup, and William broke free and drew his gun again. The little boy started screaming and ran home, I later checked to make sure that he had made it there. William started trying to fire, sending bullets everywhere, nearly killing several people, and hitting one of them. I tried to help keep them from bleeding to death. William obviously had back-up everywhere, there were bullets flying in from every direction, and I couldn't keep an eye on William and keep everyone alive at the same time. William escaped while I was trying to control the situation until the back-up arrived, but he never forgave me for what I did that day.

"I still haven't forgiven myself for that day. I should never have mentioned them. Maggie and my wife, that is. If I hadn't, William would never have gone looking for them in revenge. This wouldn't have happened. I could still have a wife. Maggie could still have a mother. None of the terrible, terrible events of this last week would have ever have happened, your hand would be fine, Maggie would be fine…everyone would have been fine. I still hate believing that he could be sick enough to kill all those people, but I know that he is no longer my friend. No friend of mine could kill my wife and try to kill my little girl. The next day I see him will be the day that he is locked up for good. I could see him dead and not feel remorse, if I feel any it's because he started out so well and could have been a fine member of the force had he not become so sick. But there is no mercy anymore. He is dead to me."

He suddenly changed subjects. "How is your hand, Jasper?" I told him about the disgusting colors and the swelling. He frowned. "It's pretty badly broken then. How have you been doing the bandage?" I showed him, and he noticed that it was coming undone. "Would you like me to fix it for you?" He offered. "I've had some brief medical training; I remember how to wrap bandages." I nodded, so he carefully undid the bandage. As he thought about how to go about things, I put my hand in the snow, enjoying the numbness that the cold brought on. "Hey hey hey…that might cause frostbite," he said, beginning to wrap the bandages. He wrapped it nicely, and the bandage was no longer in danger of slipping. "Don't you need a cast for it?"

"We can't until the swelling goes down. Once it does, I'll have one put on," I told him, moving my hand around very carefully. It hurt a lot and I winced, biting my lip and wanting to shove it in the snow again.

"I guess that makes sense," he admitted. "We should probably start heading back."

I nodded, turning around. "You do know that you couldn't save him, don't you?" I asked. I was feeling brave enough to question what he knew. I felt brave enough to explain my point of view.

"What do you mean?"

"You couldn't have stopped him. There was something wrong in his head." I suddenly remembered something. "His assistant…the one with the brain like the little boy…you will be nice to him, won't you?"

"The childish one…yes, we haven't jailed him yet. Why?"

"He helped us… he let us out and helped us find Maggie and was nice to her when she was by herself. I'm not sure he is alright in the head and it really wasn't him, it was the rest of them and he had to not tell on them because they would have hurt him and I think they had already mentally hurt him in some way…I just don't want you to punish him for what isn't his fault.

He stood thoughtfully for a moment, as though remembering something. "You have my word. I will see that he is not hurt in any way in the proceedings."

I felt the same relief as you get when you let air into your lungs after holding it for way too long. He would be okay. That was good. That was very good.

We began walking towards the house, not speaking. My shadow stretched out, blue across the surface of the snow. I was beginning to feel extremely cold, my lips were probably blue and my eyelashes were full of snow that would dangle off the ends and fall down to my feet.

Speaking of my feet, they decided to slide, dragging me off the ice and into the road as if they had a mind of their own. I sat down with an unplanned and uncoordinated bump on the edge of the curb, my feet leaning back on their heels, halfway buried in a lump of snow.

Mr. Winnock tugged me upright.

"Thank you, sir," I whispered.

"There will always be someone to catch you when you fall."

I waited for a few seconds in silence to think about that, sure that I should say something but unsure as to what.

He rescued me from having to bumble over my own words. "You are that person for my daughter. Thank you."

I nodded, and we went back to walking. I kept an eye on my feet up until the very second when we got to the door. The snow around it was slightly disturbed. We had moved it from its nice settled bed. Swinging the door open, I carefully removed my coat and boots, lining my shoes up next to Mr. Winnock's, and hanging my coat on the rack next to Maggie's. I shuffled to the kitchen, took a pain pill, and crawled into my sleeping bag. "Hey, Maggie," I whispered, deciding to try the medication thing again. She didn't respond. I put my hand down on her sleeping bag and it deflated, empty against my hand. "Mags…?"

Henry sat up next to me. "What's wrong?"

"Listen," I hissed, panicking. "Is Maggie upstairs?"

He looked at me, his eyes wide. "No…she's gone…"


	49. Chapter 49

Chapter Forty-Nine

**Oh my goodness, I'm sorry! My computer broke and I wasn't able to work on this story, and by the time we got a new one, it was finals and I had absolutely no time to work on this at all. School got out yesterday, though, so I'm back! And, by the way, I'm sixteen now. I just finished the tenth grade. **

** To all of you that have continued to support this story, even though I haven't really been present these last three months, thank you so much! I'm sorry this took so long, and, exempting traveling, I will try to be more consistent now that I have more free time. I'm sorry this chapter will be so short, but it's (hopefully) really suspenseful and the next one will be a lot longer.**

** By the way, I recommend going back and reading the last couple chapters, if you have lost track of the plot line. That should help. I had to and I wrote this thing. **

**Head's up, this chapter shows Maggie having some serious judgment fails. So if you stop reading momentarily to think "Stupid, Maggie, that was stupid," that makes sense, but keep in mind she has had a head injury (I've had one recently myself, and I acted really stupid) and so don't assume that her decisions should be amazingly in character.**

** Also, a note: I have been reading "Break Her Down" and "Can't Handle It" recently, and they are so good. I seriously recommend checking them out.**

** Okay, let's go!**

Maggie's point of view:

I awoke to the sounds of people putting on shoes and jackets. Confused, I listened to the hushed voices of my father and Jasper. They were going on a walk, I assumed. I heard them turn off the alarm, and step outside. I had a headache, and held still for several minutes, waiting for them to walk away. Then, I sat up.

_I can't stay here. I can't just stay here in bed. I have to go somewhere._

I had no idea where to go, and then the thought came to me.

_I should go see Mom. I should go to the graveyard. I haven't been in awhile, and I always go for Christmas. I want to go see Mom._

Standing up unsteadily, I walked carefully over to the door. _Please don't wake up, Henry. Please don't wake up._

Feeling with my feet, I found my boots. They were the smallest. I slid them carefully over my feet, dismayed at the feeling of cold plastic through my shoes. After they were on, I carefully stood up, momentarily loosing my balance and bumping my shoulder into the door. I froze. No one moved. I got back into the standing position and took my coat, sliding my arms into it. I didn't zip it up. Zippers made too much noise. I took one of the hats and jammed it over my head, following my hair down to the jacket and pulling it out of the jacket so that it was outside. I hated having my hair trapped inside my coat with me.

I felt carefully for the doorknob, turned it slowing, and opened the door. I stepped outside, and closed the door behind me.

The whole world was silent and cold. I zipped up my jacket and looked down, noticing the two sets of prints already there. Stepping carefully into the bigger of the two (my father's), I walked along so as to leave no tracks myself. Eventually, not wanting to run into them, I darted out of the tracks quickly under a tree (where there wasn't any snow) and got far enough away that they wouldn't find my tracks. I hoped to be back before them, but either way, they would be angry should they find me here.

Ducking behind the trees along the road, I headed along the familiar track to the graveyard. When I was young, my father used to come with me, on pre-set days, with flowers and we would visit mother. But as I grew older, he gave me permission to go by myself, and sometimes I would even go spontaneously, without knowing where I was going until I was there. But I had never left like this, in the middle of the night. I know that I could have woken any of them up and they would have come with me, but I needed to do this alone.

The streetlight was shining down on me, and I stopped, momentarily, to look up at the light. My eyes became squinted as the light shone in them, and I could see small snow-flurries spinning down under the streetlights, translucent as the light shone through them. Several flakes fell on my forehead and melted there, trailing down the sides of my face and into my hair.

I realized that, if their walk was short, they would soon be returning, and I started forward, wincing at the loud crunching of my feet on the snow. I stepped into a swell, suddenly loosing my left leg up to my knee. Cursing myself mentally, I dragged my leg out of it, only to stumble and fall onto my side, momentarily knocking the wind out of myself, and then freezing, fascinated in the unique piles of snow, individual flakes pressed up together. Then I got up, and continued.

Eventually, the large trees that surrounded the graveyard came into view. It was dark, gloomy in between the trees, and I felt a cool chill slide over my heart. I had a sudden urge to run away, to run back home, and climb in my sleeping bag and cry.

_Snap out of it, Maggie. You're okay. You've been here a hundred times. It's just Mom here, Mom and other people like her. There is nothing there that will hurt you._

Struggling through a deep swell of snow, I got to the edge of the graveyard, and then stopped, suddenly aware of another presence.

_They said he was far away. They said he was nowhere nearby. They said he was far away._

I turned, spinning around to look behind me; sure I would catch someone watching me. There was no one there, but in that moment I was completely certain.

_William is here. William is watching me. He is watching me. What do I do? If I go home, he'll follow me there, and he'll kill Dad and Jasper and Henry and Whitney. But if I don't go back, he'll kill me here…someone will find my body...and I'll die all alone, by myself, and then what will Jasper think? What will they all think?_

I wonder if he can see me right now, see me standing in the snow, considering what to do. I wonder if I'm being paranoid, if there is really no one there. But I wonder if he is there, and right now is laughing at me for being indecisive.

I wonder if I'm going to die.

_I can't let anyone die for me. I can't let anyone die because of me. It's me he wants. He wants to kill me. He will leave them alone if I let myself be killed. I will go in. And if I am being paranoid I will l laugh at myself, I will feel stupid, and no harm will be done. I can't just stand here. I will go in._

So I pick up my feet and walk in. Nothing immediately hits me. I don't hear a voice calling out to me. I don't hear footsteps behind me, or laughter. I don't hear anything except my feet on the snow and my breathing.

Eventually I find my way to the familiar stone, and kneel down in front of it, brushing the snow off of it, tracing the familiar inscription with my fingers. It is too dark to read it, but I know what it says. I run my hands over the inscription a couple times.

_Mom, we know what happened now, what happened the day you died. Dad's old friend, the William guy, he caused the car to wreck. He wanted me to be in it too. But I wasn't. I was riding with Jasper._

_ Mom, I might just be paranoid, but I think William is here with me in the graveyard. He's been trying to kill me. Do you know about that? I think he's in the graveyard with me right now. I think he's going to kill me. _

_ Mom, if he is here, and there is an afterlife, I'll see you soon. I don't know if there is, but if there is one I might be seeing you in a few moments. _

I take my hands off the stone and stick them in my pockets to warm them. They are freezing, nearly numb. _Love you, Mom._

I stand up. This would be the moment. I feel my breath shaking inside me. I'm afraid.

I hear footsteps behind me. I stiffened, but I feel brave suddenly. I will not die with him laughing at me.

"Hello, William," I say, turning around.

He is standing a couple feet behind me, a gun pointing downward from his left hand, held in a loose grip.

"Hello, Margaret." He comes to stand next to me. "Your mother was beautiful woman." I feel as though he has hit me, and struggle to remain calm. "You take after her, you know."

I look up at him. "I've been told that before."

He starts walking away, deeper into the graveyard. "Come with me, Margaret."

"Now what?"

"You die."

I follow him. What else can I do?


	50. Chapter 50

Chapter Fifty

**Chapter Fifty. We did it, guys! It hasn't been a year yet (it will be next month) and I have disappeared for extended periods of time twice, but I have managed to write through all of my school stress, and this thing is over 100,000 words, and now fifty chapters. Yeah!**

** I know that this is a long way off, but I hope to have this story wrapped up by my first day of school (September 7****th****). I go to an IB school, and this fall marks my first year in the IB (International Baccalaureate) Program. It's a really stressful program, and I doubt I would be able to update more than once or twice a month. Consequently, I hope to have Dripping Seconds wrapped up by then. Don't worry, I won't disappear from this website. I'll probably start a new story sometime this summer, but I want this at least to be done because I've been so inconsistent when it comes to this story at times.**

** Thank you to all of my reviewers who enthusiastically greeted my newest chapter/reappearance. I've missed you all. **

**This chapter goes back and forth between Maggie's point of view and Jasper's point of view, but unlike past times where I've used this tactic, they are both in the first person. I will be writing a "So-and-so's point of view" before each change, to make it easier for you to understand what I'm doing.**

**By the way, I have a different computer now, and it doesn't accept my British spellings. So now I use American spellings. I find this highly frustrating.**

** Enjoy!**

Jasper's point of view:

"She can't be gone! She can't be gone!" I said, refusing to believe what my hands and eyes and ears were telling me. Quickly, I unzipped her sleeping bag, laying it out flat, praying that by some sort of miracle she would miraculously reappear, looking at me with sleepy and confused eyes. Whitney was awake now, and I saw a slow realization forming in her eyes, the thing that I didn't want to realize, didn't want to understand.

Maggie's dad was standing behind me, looking at her sleeping bag. "I'll call the police station. Stay inside. One of you, call Jasper's house. Check to see if everyone is fine there. Jasper, can you call them?"

"No! She has to be here! She's upstairs! She has to be here! She can't be gone! She can't be!" I ran upstairs, away from Henry's darting hands, climbing the stairs and rushing into her room, and then the bathroom before I stopped, giving up. She was gone. I burst into tears. Downstairs, I could hear Henry searching for my phone.

"Uncle B?" I heard him say, sounding frightened. "It's Henry. I'm using Jasper's phone." He paused, listening to my Dad. "Maggie's gone. She's gone, Uncle B. I don't know where she is. Is everyone there?" Another pause. "Okay, good. I've got to go. The police might be coming soon. Stay inside, okay? Stay safe. Give Mom and Dad my love." Another pause. "Jasper's really upset. I'll keep an eye on him. Bye."

I climbed back down the stairs. Henry was looking at me, my phone in his hands. He reached out to me, and I let him hug me. "Your dad says to be safe. He says he loves you."

Maggie's point of view:

My hands began to burn with the cold, even in my pockets. It was dark in between the trees. I wondered whether or not, should I be able to get into the trees, he would be able to see me and shoot me. But he was standing less than a foot behind me, and I knew the gun was pointed at me. The graveyard was large and empty, there was no one else there, late at night, there was no one visiting the remains of those they loved. I shouldn't have come; I shouldn't have come by myself in the dark at night. I shouldn't have done this. There was no one to come help me; no one knew where I was. If I screamed, someone might have been able to hear me, but they wouldn't be able to find me in time. And he would shoot them too. He would be willing to do that for his revenge. It was worth much more to him then the lives of some random stranger in a graveyard.

"This way, Margaret," William said suddenly and grabbed onto my elbow, yanking me abruptly off-balance. I tripped and stumbled, falling into the snow and scraping my hands, which I had put out in front of me, hoping to catch myself. "Get up!" he said sharply, not worried about being quiet. He must have known what I had realized, that there was no one who would be able to come in time, no one who would be able to stop him, and no one around to hear him. He didn't have to be careful.

I raised myself out of the snow, and got into a standing position. My knee hurt, I'm sure I hit it on some rock hidden in the snow. William grabbed onto my arm again and yanked me forward, walking too quickly, his long stride much longer than my shorter legs. I had to struggle through the snow to keep up with him, and I stumbled often, feeling clumsy and stupid. I, somewhat stupidly, hoped at least to die with dignity, though he didn't seem willing to give me that.

At one point, I tripped again, crashing into him, and managed to knock him slightly off balance. He fell into the snow, and I got up more quickly then he did. I tried to take off running into the trees, hoping that the play of shadows on the snow and the echoes in the graveyard and the trees surrounding us would buy me enough time to hide and eventually escape. I had almost made it to the trees when he took off after me. In three strides he overtook me, and knocked me into the snow. I felt his knees pushing into my back and felt the snow on my face, driving into my open mouth, even up my nose. This was familiar, too similar to what Idiot had done to me. _He is going to choke me._ I thrashed, struggling to get free, but he was much stronger than I was. He held my head in the snow with one hand, the other hand against the back of my neck.

Suddenly, the weight was gone from my back, and he yanked me upwards, rolling me onto my back so that I could breathe. He kept one hand on my neck with a grip not tight enough to choke me, but tight enough that I felt like I was going to choke. I coughed several times, struggling to get the water and snow out of my mouth, and weakly clawed at his hand, trying to get him to release my throat. He slapped me, his glove scratching roughly against my cheek. "Look at me," he commanded. I opened my eyes and nearly screamed when I found his face inches from mine. "You little idiot," he hissed, inches from my face. I could feel his breath hot on my face, which was still cold from being pressed in the snow, though it burnt where I had been hit. I didn't breathe in; scared his breath would be as vile as his voice. "Never run away like that. You can't get away from me, Margaret. No matter where you go, no matter what you do, I will kill you. I won't forget you. I've waited this long, I can wait the days, weeks, years that it will take me to find you again. You are hopeless. You don't have any hope. You don't have anywhere to go but beyond the veil, to the afterlife, wherever it is you think you go when you die. No one can get you; no one can save you, understood? That boy isn't here today. Your daddy isn't here today. You never were strong enough to get away by yourself. And now you are alone. This is the end of you, Margaret. Tonight you die, so it's just easier if you accept it now and come along without a struggle." He yanked me upright once more, releasing my throat. I gasped several times, and put my own hands where his had been. "No more of that, okay?"

I nodded. His grip on my arm was so tight that it hurt, but I was afraid to try to pull away. He was walking quickly again. As the trees rushed past us, I thought I saw faces watching me and hands and arms reaching out to take me to wherever it was I was going this night.

Jasper's point of view:

I could hear my heartbeat in my chest, and every sound was too loud. The wind around the house was enough to startle me. I was even terrified by my own stomach growling. At every sound I expected to feel a gun pressed against me, or a knife, or a hand around my throat. Henry was silent, Whitney was silent, and I was silent. Mr. Winnock was now silent, though seconds ago he had been trying to dial the police; he stared with frustration at the phone, which refused to cooperate. _The lines are dead, again, just like they were at the farmhouse. The storm knocked them out. _My mind takes awhile to think of the reason for it, and I felt stupid once I finally figured it out. "Jasper, I need to borrow your phone," Mr. Winnock said, frustrated. He set the useless phone down on the couch, and held out his hand for mine.

I removed the phone from my pocket and quickly checked the reception. I saw that the reception was very poor, and swore internally. Nothing seemed to be on our side this day. "It isn't working very well, but here, you can try." He took the phone from me and dialed for the police. He waited a few seconds, before getting someone. "Yes, it's me. Maggie's gone. We don't know when, but she's gone. What? I can't hear you, you're breaking up, please speak louder, I can't hear you. Yes! Maggie is gone! My daughter! Margaret!" The line went out, and he stared in frustration at my phone. "Their line is gone. They, assuming they understood me, should be here in a matter of minutes." He swore suddenly, and began crying. "Why couldn't you leave her alone, William? Why can't you just leave us alone? Why did you have to go after her? Why couldn't you be content with just me? Why couldn't you just leave her alone?"

Maggie's point of view:

After what felt like a long time, but could have been much shorter, we finally stopped. I looked around, trying to analyze the area for any possible escapes, no matter how implausible, or any materials I could use as a weapon. I came up completely blank, a feeling that I hated almost as much as I hated William himself.

I was at the edge of a small ditch, maybe seven or eight feet deep, with sides that were just sloped enough that a tall someone, with a lot of effort, could get up if they found themselves inside the ditch. I realized that, while standing at the bottom, no one would be able to see a person inside until they got right up to the ditch. Also, trees were scatted both around the edges of the ditch, blocking it from view, and inside it, making it perfect for concealing something. I estimated the amount of space in the impression to be approximately five feet by ten feet, including the trees. Not a lot of room, but definitely enough for a grown man to murder a sixteen-year-old girl, especially when the sides were too steep for said girl to get out easily by herself, and said man had a gun.

"In you go," said William, and he gave me a hard push on the back. I let out a cry as I felt myself fall, and then landed on a pile of snow. William jumped in after me, landing just inches from me, and I stumbled upright, giving myself a distance away from him. I realized that I couldn't feel my hands at all, and I wondered if I was beginning to get hypothermia, or if they were simply numb from ending up in the snow so often without gloves. I was shivering, even with my coat, and my sweatpants were completely soaked, clinging to me. I drew my hands to my face and observed that they were pale, the skin under my nails turning a grayish blue. _This isn't good. I'm probably becoming hypothermic, if I wasn't already from these last few minutes. I can't stay out here. His coat is a lot warmer than mine. _

I looked over at him, and noticed that he was looking for something behind some trees. I couldn't see his face, but I could see his back, which meant that he couldn't see me. I looked over to the edges of the ditch. I could see how someone his height could get out with only minimal difficulty, but seeing as I was about a foot shorter, I couldn't imagine how I would get out by myself, even if I was left alone without being at all incapacitated, which wasn't going to happen. I glanced back at him, and then at the sides in all directions. There was a branch hanging down at one point, but I didn't know if I could grab it and drag myself up in time.

"Don't even think about trying to get out," William threatened darkly from the other side of the ditch. I wondered to myself if he could read minds. "I will shoot you. There is no one here to hear me do so, or to hear you crying for help. Just stay put and stay quiet, I'll be over there in a couple seconds." He waited for a few seconds and then continued. "Crying really irritates me. Just stay silent."

I decided that, in light of past experiences with him, I would avoid irritating him, and would therefore remain silent. He was going to kill me anyway, but maybe this was I could avoid a beating before hand, or perhaps could keep him from trying to burn off energy killing Jasper or Henry or Whitney or Dad or someone else, like Whitney's little sisters, or even a random stranger. My heart beat suddenly in my throat. How did I know he wouldn't? How did I know he would be content just killing me, that ending my life wouldn't bring up some sort of monster within him, causing him to wreck havoc and kill people across the city?

I couldn't know if he would or wouldn't. I would just have to hope, and try to avoid giving him any reason to even think of them, let alone go after them.

According to his promise, he came over in about thirty seconds, holding something in his gloved hands. I couldn't see the gun at his side, but I knew it would have to be around somewhere, and I didn't want to risk being shot in the leg or something, if it was concealed somewhere. I wouldn't die immediately if he did, but I would certainly bleed everywhere, and then all hopes of escape would immediately go out the window.

"Follow me," he commanded. I followed him to a tree towards middle of the ditch. I could still see the side that we came down, the side that anyone who would come to find me would come by. "Kneel down," he commanded. I knelt in front of the tree. He grabbed my arms and yanked them behind me, and I felt him tie my wrists tightly together. He then tied my ankles tightly together, first removing my boots. "Stay right there," he said, looking into my eyes, and pointing to a cluster of trees about two feet away from me. "I am going over to those trees. I will be able to see you, and I will be back shortly. Don't try anything…stupid."

I could hear my heart racing in my chest, and could feel it pound in my throat. As much as I had accepted that I was going to die now, I still found myself terrified when I realize my death is moments away. The snow had already soaked through my pants completely, and my legs were freezing. I could feel the water climbing through my socks, and knew that soon the same would be happening to my feet. _I will become badly hypothermic if I don't get off the snow soon, assuming I'm not already. Maybe he is going to make me freeze to death, though that doesn't seem personal enough for him._

He came back holding something that rattled, metal on metal, in his arms. I couldn't see it clearly, but knew from previous experiences that it sounded like a chain. Sure enough, he sat down near me and untied my wrists, pulling my arms behind me and causing them to meet on the other side of the tree, which didn't have a very wide trunk. He tied my wrists together once again, and attached one end of the chain around my wrists, wrapping it tightly around the side of the tree, drawing it over my chest, and around the tree again, this time drawing it over my waist_. _I lost feeling in my hands almost immediately. He took a second chain, which was much longer than the first, and attached it around my ankles and drew this chain around the back of the tree, crossing it over my midsection again, then across my shoulders the second time around, then across my waist, and then across my chest before attaching the end to the first chain. The chains were much thinner than your average industrial chains, I estimated them to be about as wide as my thumb, but were very solidly constructed. There was no way I would be able to get free, or even to stand from my kneeling position to protect my legs.

He crouched in front of me as though to survey his handiwork, and then pinched my nose shut. I quickly opened my mouth to take in breath, and he shoved a wadded up piece of cloth into my mouth. He took a roll of duct tape out of his pockets and tore off a strip, taping my mouth shut so that I couldn't spit the cloth out. "Be good, Margaret. I'll be back soon." He paused to look at me, and then added, "by the way, I covered up your tracks, and I'm going to lay false tracks going in the opposite direction" He held up my boots. "No one will find you here."

I watched in silent, helpless terror as he climbed the side of the ditch, leaving me completely alone.

Jasper's point of view:

The police car eventually drew up to the side of the house, and police officers rushed in. I could hear them making note of the mess of footprints on the front porch.

"Okay," they said, once they came in. "We've found what we believe are her tracks along with another set, potentially William's. They went towards the main road. We have people and dogs following it right now."

"What can we do?" I demanded.

"Nothing. Just stay here, we should find her soon. Just stay inside, just in case. We'll keep on man here, and one at the Bartlett house." Seeing my furious expression, he put one hand on my shoulder. "It'll be okay, son. We'll find her."

Maggie's point of view:

I wasn't sure how long it had been, but if felt like a long time. I had given up trying to get free quite a while ago, and was no longer trying to call attention to myself by shouting. There was no way anyone would be able to hear me with my gag. My hands and feet were completely numb, and my thoughts had become sluggish. My breathing seemed slower, and I had to struggle to stay awake. My eyes closed, and then I would force them open, only to have the cycle repeat. My nose, which had run from the cold, was slightly blocked up, making it harder for me to breathe with my mouth duct-taped shut.

I opened my eyes to wake myself up, and saw William crouching in front of me, watching me. "Hello, Margaret. You've been out here for forty-five minutes. How are you feeling? You're seeming sort of frozen." He put one hand to the side of my face; his skin seemed to burn on mine. "Yep, you're nearly a block of ice. Poor girl. See you soon."

He left again. I was alone again. I felt myself beginning to cry, and then stopped. The tears were freezing to my face.

Jasper's point of view:

She had been gone, at least, forty-five minutes now, probably even longer. She would have to be nearly frozen now. She might even be dead. My head was spinning. I couldn't think. Where was she? Was she okay? What had he done to her?

A policeman was rushing up our driveway. I threw open the door before he could get to it. "What happened?" I asked him.

"We found her boots…we think her tracks were planted, that she was put somewhere else and we've been following a false lead."

"So where is she?" I said, desperately.

"We don't know. We're trying to find her right now. The dogs are on her scent. We'll find her. Don't worry, Jasper. We'll find her."

Maggie's point of view:

"Margaret, wake up!" Someone was shaking my shoulder. "Margaret, it's me."

I opened my eyes drearily. My face was numb. I could hardly breathe. "Margaret, you're done. They're nearly onto your trail." William said this in a quiet whisper. "You're done. You're going to die now. It's okay. We're done."

I looked at him, confused. I tried to move my tongue in my mouth, but I could barely move it.

He held up a needle and I struggled to focus my eyes on him and the needle. "This will put you to sleep. You know what happens when you go to sleep in cold weather?"

I struggled to remember, and I couldn't. My brain was completely clouded.

"You die, Margaret. You freeze to death. It's okay. I'll inject you and leave, and they'll find your body. You won't feel anything."

_The cold…go away…?_

Because my arms were behind me, who moved off to the side of me, where I could no longer see what he was doing. He rolled up my sleeve and I felt him press the needle against the skin of the inside of my elbow. I whimpered into the duct tape as I felt it go into my arm, and then felt the cold of the liquid enter me.

"It's over, Margaret. You did well, but it's over. Go to sleep. I've done what I came for, and we're both done. Go to sleep."

The voice faded away, and I let my eyes close.

Jasper's point of view:

"_We found something!"_

The policeman jumped, and looked at his walkie-talkie, and smiled.

"Where?" he responded, talking into the walkie-talkie.

"_There are scattered tracks in the graveyard…can you come over?"_

I didn't wait. I grabbed my shoes, shoving them on my feet, and ran outside, sprinting towards the graveyard as fast as I could.

"Jasper!" Henry shouted. I heard him follow me. "Jasper, what are you thinking?" I turned to see him following me, Whitney close behind. "Never mind… I'm with you, Jasper. Thinking is for people who think. Let's go."

We sprinted towards the graveyard. I followed the tracks of the policeman. Eventually, we came to a giant ditch. A policeman was crouching at the bottom, next to a small bundle that was leaning against a tree. Another policeman was staring up at us. "Jasper! Henry! Whitney! What on earth…never mind, get down here, one of you, the rest of you stay up!"

I took a flying leap, knocking the wind out of myself as I landed on the pile of snow. I ran over to the policeman near the tree. He was crouching in front of Maggie, a series of chains near him that look to have been broken by a large rock nearby.

"What's wrong with her?" She was terribly pale, her mouth was duct-taped shut, and she seemed to be asleep.

"She's badly hypothermic. Get her back to the house. You need to get her warm, immediately. We don't have time to call an ambulance just yet, and the power lines are kind of sketchy."

I picked her up. "Where's William?"

"Somewhere around here, I think. You have to get back to the house quickly. She can't be asleep in this weather." The policeman practically threw me up the edge. Henry grabbed onto me to steady me, and we took off running. Somewhere in the woods, footsteps ran by us, and a shot rang out.

"I hit him!" yelled someone. "I hit William! Call an ambulance! He isn't dead!"

I started running again, ignoring the call of the policeman. One of them could answer it. I was busy. I made it back, and Henry opened the door for me.

I set Maggie down on the floor of the living room. "Maggie! Maggie! Snap out of it! Snap out of it! Wake up!"

She opened her eyes blearily and then closed them again.

"No, wake up! Stay with me!"

Mr. Winnock was calling 911, and Henry was relaying the message about William.

"Maggie?"

She mumbled something and I removed the duct tape. She turned onto her side to spit out what looked like a ball of cloth. "Jas…"

"Yes, it's me. Stay awake for me, okay. Here, blankets. Here," I wrapped a blanket around her. "Your pants are wet," I said. Her ankles were tied together, and I quickly untied them.

"I've got dry clothing," Whitney said. She helped Maggie get her pants off, and put dry ones on. Then, she removed Maggie's jacket. "Her shirt is still dry, here's my sweatshirt." She slid it over Maggie's arms and zipped it up immediately. "Her socks are soaked, so is her hat. Get them off." After I removed Maggie's socks, she put on dry ones. "Oh, God, her feet are like ice. Get her in a sleeping bag now. Is an ambulance coming?"

"I called the ambulance. They should be here soon, another one is going to the graveyard." Mr. Winnock came over. "Maggie?"

"Dad…" she said, and then stopped, nearly going to sleep. Mr. Winnock took her shoulder and shook it.

"You have to stay awake. Stay awake!"

"My arm…"

I took her arm, and rolled back the sleeve. There was a needle mark on the inside of her elbow, along with several rope marks on her wrists, which I assumed were from being tied up. The needle mark confused me. "What happened?"

"He…needle…" she closed her eyes again, and I shook her awake, quickly shoving her, blanket and all, into the nearest sleeping bag. I unzipped another one and laid it on top of the one she was in.

"Did he give you something?"

She looked at me blankly, and then held up one hand in front of her. "My fingers…blue."

I took her hand in between my own, wincing as they sat, ice-like, against my palm. "Here, I'm warm. Stay awake. Keep talking to me."

"Siren…"

"You hear a siren?" I froze, listening. An ambulance was coming from the distance. "That's good. The siren is good. Where were you?"

"Graveyard…went to see…Mom…"

"You went to see your Mom?"

"Will I?"

"Will you what?"

"See her…" her voice was getting fainter.

"No. No. We are going to the hospital, we'll get you warm, and then you'll be fine. You'll be fine."

"William…"

"They shot him. They've got him. It'll be okay. We're safe."

"Safe."

"Yes."

"Jasper?"

"Yes?"

"I saw Mom…in the stars…" she closed her eyes again, and I couldn't shake her awake.

"She's asleep," I said to Henry, who was standing behind me. "Now what?"

"The ambulance is here," Whitney cried.

The paramedics burst in, picking her up. "One of you needs to come with me. The rest stay."

Mr. Winnock went to leave with them, and I followed him to the door. As I watched the ambulance flash away, I looked up at the sky, into the stars.

"What did you see?" I whispered to myself. "What did you see by yourself in the dark, thinking you were going to die? Did you see the same things I saw in the dark, or did you see better things?"

An owl cried out in the night, and I slammed the door shut, turning back into the house immediately, surprised to feel tears on my face.

_How do we ever know what is in the dark?_


	51. Chapter 51

Chapter Fifty-One

**How did you like that chapter? Was it suspenseful? I certainly hope so, I enjoyed writing it myself and I felt that I did a pretty good job with switching back and forth between points of view. It was really hard for me to put up though, because, for some reason, I was paranoid that people weren't going to like it. It also upset me that both of my chapters that I have done recently have been sizably shorter then the ones I created before disappearing were. I feel like my writing style has changed a lot in between (blame the IB program, they are making me all critical and detailed and analytical) and that's been stressing me out. However, people seem to be enjoying this was just as much as they did the ways before, so, we're okay.**

** Update on this story's up-and-coming completion status: Last chapter was basically the end of all climatic action. It's basically winding down from here, and consequently we are near the end. **

** Once again, a thank-you to all of my reviewers: THANK YOU! You make my life that much more interesting, and make me joyful when I open my email to find a new review, or someone marking me as a "favorite author" or "favorite story" or placing my story on alert or something. Thank you. You make me happy.**

**This chapter ties a lot of the loose ends back together in preparation for the conclusion. It's rather complex at times, but I'm going to be as straightforward as I can be in order to help avoid confusion. As always, feel free to send me a private message if you have any questions, and I will be happy to address them. Please don't use reviews as a way to ask questions, it's difficult for me to respond to you that way, and there is a chance that I will miss your questions, which I would rather not do.**

** Please remember: My story accepts anonymous reviews, I don't own Unnatural History (as much as I wish I did, I could have saved it from being discontinued) and I hope you enjoy this chapter.**

** Enjoy!**

Henry's point of view:

As the ambulance pulled away, Jasper came back inside as though frightened, his face wet with tears, slamming the door behind him. I jumped, startled, and looked at him with confusion, expecting an explanation for the sudden assault to my eardrums, Jasper offered none, not even bothering to look at me, and walked past me into the living room, where he sat an the couch with his head in his hands, the picture of dismay. The door was quickly reopened, and a policeman stood in the doorway, looking at us. "Do you mind if I come in? It's very cold out there, and William has been caught so I just need to stay here until we are given the 'all clear'. I also don't really want to leave you alone seeing as Mr. Winnock is at the hospital with his daughter." I nodded and he came inside, shivering, and closed the door behind him, much more gently then Jasper had. "Thank you. We're almost done. I followed you here from the graveyard to make sure that nothing happened to you on the way back, but I heard, before I left, that he had been shot. I'm sure they've caught him, and are sending him to the hospital."

I felt my insides resettle with a feeling of relief. It was almost over. They had caught William. This whole horrible ordeal had almost finished, and we had all made it through alive, none of us had died, even when it looked like none of us would come through alive. I could finally relax without worrying about something happening to one of my friends or my parents…my parents! How were they?

"Sir?" I asked, hesitating to break the silence too suddenly, fearing that it might snap and recoil at me, striking at me the way broken silences with Jasper sometimes did, when Jasper would snap a response at me because I had disturbed him, and I would end up feeling sad and guilty for hours. The policeman turned to look at me, and smiled reassuringly. "Is everyone at the other house okay? My parents…and my uncle, and Whitney's mom and her little sisters, they're all okay, aren't they? Nothing happened over there, right?" Jasper's house was farther from the graveyard, farther than where Maggie had been, but at the same time closer to where Maggie's tracks had been laid. _He would have been nearby. Something could have happened. He could have done something. If he had been angry or something, if he had just wanted to hurt us one more time, or if it…it had something to do with my parents, he wanted them to do something, and they didn't, he could have gone, gone to get revenge on them for not doing what he wanted them to do! My mom and dad, or Uncle B, or Whitney's mom, or Anya and Katina, or all of them…something could have happened!_

"Everyone at the other house is completely fine," the policeman reassured me. I felt Whitney relax next to me, and let out a small sigh of relief. She had worried, as I had worried. She was worried about her mother and her sisters, like I was worried about my parents. "We don't have any reason to believe that William had any intention of hurting anyone except for Maggie, he didn't go, as far as we can tell, anywhere near either of the houses except to pass them when laying tracks. He didn't even come near to see anyone in the house. They were safe the whole time, we were just being cautious."

"Didn't he want something from my parents? When Maggie was originally taken, they wrote a letter that mentioned he had demands from my parents. Wouldn't he have wanted to make sure they had followed through or something?" I felt confused. My head was spinning, but that might have been from a variety of feelings, from lack to sleep to hunger to exhaustion to the feeling of catharsis, that sudden joy that it was finally over. Jasper was looking at me, suddenly alert, as though something I said had gotten his mind back from wherever it had gone. I smiled at him, but he didn't smile back. He was looking at me very intently, and then turned to look instead at the policeman as the policeman began to speak.

"I was confused about that myself," the policeman admitted. "Luckily, one of William's henchmen who was higher in command, and therefore more involved in the planning of this whole thing, was willing to explain it to us after he had been captured." The policeman took a notebook out of one of his pockets and flipped through it. I wondered if he could feel Jasper's eyes burning holes in him, and if so, if it bothered him. "This is my notebook from this whole case. I have everything from it in here, and…ah, here we are, the notes from the confession. I'll explain the situation best I can, these notes are kind of all over the place, and they don't have a lot of background information, because we already knew that.

"William kind of disappeared from us many years ago. He was a pretty active serial killer for awhile, killing people every few months or so, and then after the confrontation with Mr. Winnock about ten years back, he abruptly seemed to stop killing people, much to our relief. We know from the confessions of his associates that he was still involved with other crimes such as theft, but we never really associated him with these crimes, so he flew under our radar.

"William didn't want to be associated with kidnapping Maggie, at least not until after the fact. Those people your parents got arrested, Henry, used to be part of his rather complex group of people he had working for him, but were not associated with him in our eyes. By making reference to them, he had completely diverted any attention from himself. He made the issue about you and your family, Henry, instead of making it have to do with the Winnock family, something that would of caused us to catch on to him."

"I don't get it," Jasper said suddenly. His voice sounded rough and horrible, as though he had either decided to take up smoking, or had swallowed sandpaper. I reached out and grabbed onto his arm, not how it would help, but wanting to make it obvious that I was willing to do something. "He wanted revenge," Jasper continued. "I'm pretty sure he would have wanted Maggie's father to realize that it was he who had killed her," Jasper broke off, shuddered, and then continued. "He wouldn't have felt that his revenge was complete if Mr. Winnock believed that his daughter had been a victim of something completely unrelated to himself."

"William's plan did involve him eventually making the reason for the crime known to Mr. Winnock, but he didn't want to do so immediately. Since he disappeared from the life of a serial killer, we have had far less task forces trained on finding him. However, he never truly lost his status as a criminal of importance, especially with some nut or other calling in every week or so with a false lead on how to find him. William knew that if he made his involvement with the crime known, the whole nation would immediately be searching for him, and he didn't want that. It appears that his plan was to divert our attention away from himself, which he successfully did by a fake involvement with Henry's parents, get his revenge, which he almost succeeded in doing several times, and then in some way, whether by going to Mr. Winnock, sending a letter, making a phone call, or by some other means, let him know that it was his old friend who had killed his daughter."

Jasper shuddered violently, and I tightened my grip on his arm, feeling like I was going to be sick myself. "So it never was about my parents?" I said, clarifying what I had just heard. "They had nothing to do with any of it? It all was just a set-up, there is no reason why he would have wanted to hurt them in anyway?"

"No, Henry. Your parents were merely a diversion, nothing more. Your family is completely fine. Sure, William would have been glad to have these people out of custody, but they weren't important to him and he didn't really care for them. The main importance was getting his revenge and keeping us off his trail until he had succeeded. He would have eventually revealed himself to Mr. Winnock, and by doing so would have enabled Mr. Winnock to tell us that he was back, but by this point he would have been able to disappear again, probably content with his revenge. It was a very smart plot, and we never really realized the complexities of it until it was over. And now it is."

"Is Maggie going to be okay?" Whitney said, speaking for the first time since we noticed that Maggie was missing. She had been frozen in shocked silence, hardly moving for the whole thing. Her voice sounded strange, but it was her voice. She was worried. "She was really badly hypothermic, she felt like ice, and we think she was drugged in order to make her go to sleep. That would have killed her, wouldn't it? We were trying to keep her awake but it was really hard, she kept falling back asleep and she was asleep at first when we brought here here."

"I found her initially, and yes, she was asleep and very badly hypothermic. I thought she was dead at first, she was so cold and she wouldn't wake up at first. I'm thinking you are correct, I believe he chained her to a tree in order to keep her from trying to get out of the ditch or calling attention to herself in any way and drugged her, assuming that she would go to sleep and freeze to death before we would be able to find her. He was almost correct, in any of sense. She was very close to dying, but she was found in time, luckily, and I believe that she will be fine. I didn't get the impression that he had hurt her, so she should recover relatively quickly. If anything, there may have been some effect on her immune system from the sudden exposure to cold, but I don't even know about that. She'll be fine. Now, you three look absolutely beat. I was wondering, would you mind moving to the other house, so that we could have you all together? It would make you easier to watch, and I would let them know whom to call should something change with Maggie. The danger is basically gone, we just want to be sure that everyone is safe until we have William stabilized and in custody."

"No, that would be fine," I said, after first glancing at Whitney and Jasper to be sure that I had their agreement. Whitney nodded at me, but Jasper seemed too lost within himself to give me any clear response. I shook his arm, and his eyes snapped up to me, and he nodded, somewhat distracted. "That would be fine. We should take our sleeping bags, though. I don't know that we would have enough at home. Maggie's is with her, as well as one of the blankets, but we still have two others and quite a bit of blankets with us that we can take."

Jasper nodded and gathered up the blankets and one of the sleeping bags in his arms, and I took the other. Whitney went to the kitchen and got Jasper's pain medication, and debated taking Maggie's medication with her. "You can probably leave it here," I told her. "She won't be there with us, and they'll have medication for her at the hospital." Whitney nodded and set the bottle very carefully on the counter.

I took her hand, and squeezed it. "Maggie will be okay, Whitney. Now, let's go. We can see your Mom and your sisters. Our mothers are probably worried sick." I smiled at her, and she returned the smile, somewhat weakly. "You'll be okay. We'll be okay," I told her. We were at the front door now, and I could see the policeman defrosting the windows of his cruiser. "Jasper? Are you coming?" I called back into the house. He didn't respond, and I felt my heart stutter in my chest. "Can you take this?" I asked, handing Whitney the sleeping bag. "Get in the car. We'll be along in a moment." Her eyes were wide and frightened. "Don't. I'm sure it's fine. He's in the house somewhere. He's really upset." I gave her a gentle push out the door. "Go."

I watched her until she got to the car, making sure that she got there safely, and then turned back into the house. "Jasper? Jasper, where are you? We need to go home." I walked back into the living room, and found it empty. "Jasper?" I climbed the stairs quickly, trying not to panic, and then stopped to listen. I could hear breathing coming from Maggie's room, and I carefully pushed the door open. "Jasper…" I said, dismayed. "Jasper…"

He was kneeling next to Maggie's bed, the sleeping bag and blankets in a pile next to him. He had put his head on Maggie's pillow, and was crying, worse than I had seen him at any point these last few days. I was torn between going to him and giving him privacy, worried that he would be embarrassed that I was witnessing him cry like this. It was nothing to be ashamed of, of course, but Jasper had a tendency to be very sensitive about certain emotional things, especially the ones that involved Maggie, which I was sure this did.

Unsure of what I should do, I decided to make a deal of sorts with myself. I would call to him one more time, and if he turned to look at me or gave any sign of acknowledging my presence, I would go to him. If not, I would go downstairs and tell the policeman to take Whitney back home and come back for us afterwards, hopefully giving Jasper enough time to calm himself down enough to come with us. Taking a deep breath and tensing as though Jasper was a wild animal I was about to fight, I opened my mouth. "Jasper?" I said, and waited. Jasper raised his head from the pillow and turned to look at me. That was good at least. "Hey. I'm so sorry, Jasper. She'll be all right, you heard the policeman. She was just cold, she had hypothermia, and they can fix that. You did well. You got her back in time, and you helped her begin to warm up. You did really well. Now come on, we have to head back home. Your dad must be worried sick about you." I held out a hand to him.

"I thought I had lost her, Henry. I thought she was gone." His voice sounded completely broken. "When I found her, down in the ditch…when I was carrying her back, when I was trying to wake her up and she wouldn't at first, and even when she would but kept falling back to sleep, I thought I had lost her. I thought that I had been too late, and had I left just minutes sooner, or gotten back from the walk just minutes before, or hadn't left at all; I would have been able to keep it from happening. I thought she had died, and I would have been able to stop it, I just didn't know it at the time. Like when I had bat fever, and you thought you weren't going to make it back in time. You must have felt that way." I shuddered at the memory, and he nodded, as though I had confirmed something. "I felt like that. The whole time we were running back. I felt like that."

"But you didn't. You made it in time, and she will be fine. You were in time, and you didn't cause this to happen to her. It's over now, Jasper. We made it through this. Now come with us, come home, and get some sleep. She's in the best place she can be, her dad is with her, and we have made it. And seriously, that policeman will come in and drag you out if you don't come by your own means in the next few minutes. Come on." I shook my arm impatiently, willing him to grab it.

He smiled and took my hand, and I helped him up. I grabbed the bundle of bedding, and we headed downstairs, locking the door and setting the alarm behind ourselves, and climbed into the car. The three of us crammed ourselves into the backseat, the bedding heaped on top of our legs, and tried to relax our very frazzled nervous systems on the drive back.

I think I had gone to sleep, or at least began to doze off, when the car pulled up alongside the house. The drive didn't feel nearly long enough. Seeing the house outside of one of the fogged-up windows, I gathered up a good amount of the bedding and stepped outside, momentarily shocked out of my wits by the cold air. My feet slid out from under me momentarily on the ice, but I grabbed the side of the car and got my feet back under me before I could fall. "Careful. It's really icy out here," I told Whitney, who was getting out on the other side. Jasper followed me out of the car, and we made our way back to the house. The lights were on; I assumed many people were awake, if not all of them. Well, maybe Anya and Katina would be asleep, but I was pretty sure no one else would be.

Sure enough, the moment I knocked on the door, the door flew open. Whitney's mom, looking rather frazzled and stressed, yanked us in immediately. I couldn't understand what she was saying, but I could understand that she was crying out of relief and joy. She hugged Jasper and me quickly and then grabbed onto Whitney as though she was never going to let go again. I couldn't understand all of what she was saying to the policeman, but I gathered that she was either thanking him or blessing him. He nodded and smiled, not really understanding her either.

My mom came around the corner next, and rushed forward to meet me upon seeing me. "Henry! Henry, thank God. Thank God. Are you okay? Are you going to be okay? We heard that…we heard that Maggie was gone, and we didn't hear anything after that, are you all okay? What happened?" She released me and took my face in her hands. "Henry, what happened?" she said, reading the sadness and worry and exhaustion in my eyes. I could see Uncle B talking to Jasper, probably asking him the same things.

I shook my head, suddenly too exhausted to say anything. Mom released me and went to talk to the policeman. I staggered into the living room, where I found Whitney's little sisters. The littlest one, Anya, blessed with the magical gift of small children to sleep through just about everything, seemed to be asleep, clutching her doll to her chest, but Katina was definitely awake and frightened. "Henry?" she said in a whisper, looking at me standing in the doorway. "Is…is okay?" Her eyes had the look of a child who had seen and heard something from a nightmare. I was sure that I looked the same.

I sat down next to her, and she climbed into my lap and pressed her head into my shoulder, suddenly bursting into tears. "It's okay, Katina. It's okay. It's all okay," I said, trying to speak soothingly, but she continued to cry. I began rubbing her shoulder gently, trying to calm her down. "It's okay. Whitney is okay."

Anya woke up then, and looked at me, completely startled. She said something quickly in Russian to Katina, who responded between sobs, and Anya looked completely terrified. Anya yelled for her mother and ran around the corner to the kitchen. I picked Katina up and followed her, and found Whitney hugging Anya, who was crying hysterically into her shoulder. Whitney's mother took Katina from me, and I turned and headed back into the living room, lying down on the floor without bothering to grab a sleeping bag or any blankets. I fell asleep almost immediately.

I awoke after what I estimated to be about ten minutes to my father shaking me awake. "Henry. Henry?" I opened my eyes and sat up, acknowledging the fact that I was still surrounded by people, which meant I couldn't have been sleeping long. My mind felt like it was full of cotton, and my mouth felt the same.

"Dad?" I mumbled sleepily. "What's going on? Has something happened?" I rubbed at my eyes and swallowed, hating the dry and sticky feeling of my tongue and the inside of my mouth. My voice felt thick, like I couldn't get the words out quickly enough, and my tongue was heavy in my mouth, a useless deadweight.

"Everything is fine, Henry. I'm sorry I had to wake you up, you were sleeping and I know you are completely exhausted. Everyone is fine, and we're all heading to sleep soon. I just wanted to tell you that I'm very proud of you, Henry. I'm proud of how you have been handling these situations with no one but your friends and yourself to help you, and I'm proud of how strong and wise and brave you have become. I just wanted to tell you this because I see you infrequently and you've been disappearing or in danger so often lately, I wasn't sure when I would get the chance. You've done well, son. Now, you can go back to sleep if you want. I won't make you stay awake."

"Thanks, Dad," I managed to mumble sleepily. His praise had been too much; I had been frightened so often, I wasn't as brave as he thought I had been. "It's been hard. I've been scared a lot. I'm so glad it is finally over, I felt like crying or giving up so many times. I wasn't really being that brave. I was just trying to stay alive, and half the time I failed at what I was trying to do or I would make a plan and it would fall apart. I couldn't get anything right. I was so tired and I just wanted someone else to come and take over for me, instead of making us try to figure it out all on our own. It wasn't really all that brave."

"Do you think I felt any different?" He countered. "Henry…when I heard that you were gone, when I heard that you were all caught up in this, and when they called to say that you had left, to try to find her on your own, with just Jasper and Whitney with you, do you think I felt any less like crying or panicking? No, Henry. I was completely terrified. The idea of my son…out without outside protection dealing with people who, for all we knew, would kill him on the spot…" he closed his eyes, wincing internally. "Henry, I thought I was going to die. I thought I was going to die right then." He smiled at me, his voice changing tones. "Now you, my son, have been working very hard and have had a rough last few days. You need to sleep. Go to sleep, Henry. Know that we are proud of you, we couldn't be any more proud of you if it was required by us, and we love you very much, and we are so glad that you are safe and with us again."

"Thanks, Dad," I mumbled, and let myself lie back down on the floor. Someone had put a blanket over my legs, and I pulled it up over my shoulders and fell asleep again.

I awoke again when it was very dark; the house was still and completely quiet. As I listened I could hear slow breathing around me. One of Whitney's sisters was lying across my legs, and another one was in the corner. Someone was on the couch, maybe Whitney's mom, and the other two forms, Whitney and Jasper, were visible in the dark a ways away from me. I was relieved to find my mind had cleared, but my mouth was still unbearably dry. I got up, carefully picking Anya up off my legs, and set her down on top of my blankets, feeling a sense of relief when she didn't wake up. I made my way to the kitchen.

In the dark, I felt for the cabinet over the sink and used the moonlight to select one of the cups stacked haphazardly on the shelf. I knew better than to try to drink the tap water, it was really disgusting, so instead I quietly opened the freezer and got out a bottle of water from the stock that we kept on hand. I wanted to sit down, but didn't want to make a lot of noise grabbing a chair, so I instead sat down on the floor to drink my water.

As I sat with the cold water bottle clamped between my hands, I reflected upon everything that had happened in the last few hours. I hadn't had much time to think about what was going on when it happened, I was too busy trying to make sure we all survived it. But free of the adrenaline rush that had kept my mind darting from place to place and the need to constantly make decisions, I was able to think about what had happened and how I had felt when it was happening.

I had been stressed and ashamed and desperate when we realized Maggie was gone. I felt ashamed that I hadn't noticed her leave, or being taken; I hadn't known exactly what had happened at the time. And I felt scared. Desperately scared for her, and scared for us, and for my parents, for anyone else that might have been taken.

And when we had found her, I felt sick. I had felt terrified, afraid to look at her as she was lying on the floor of her living room, scared that she would be dead and I would have to see her dead. Maggie was like a sister to me in some ways, and I didn't want to see her dead. I would never be able to forget it. But I did look, and there was so much relief inside me that I thought I would explode when I realized she was alive.

_She was alive. _I had to keep reminding myself of that, to make sure that I didn't loose my mind, didn't go back to that place in my head where I couldn't remember things and was just panicking. I had to stay safe inside myself, for everyone else.

_I need to meditate, _I thought to myself. I couldn't remember the last time I had meditated, and my mind was feeling very scattered. I finished my water bottle and recycled it, throwing away the cap, and then sat back down on the floor, making myself comfortable. I closed my eyes and waited, making a low humming sound for myself.

As the world outside of myself faded out, I felt my own peace fill me. My thoughts knitted back together, forming coherent strands, and all the worries that I had felt were soothed. I didn't realize I had fallen asleep until I woke up.


	52. Chapter 52

Chapter Fifty-Two

**Okay. That was a really hard chapter to write. No matter what I did, I felt like it wasn't making sense or tying up just right, and it was really upsetting me. I think I finally got it towards the end, though. It seemed decently clear and I thought you would at least be able to get the gist of what I was saying.**

** Update on this story's up-and-coming completion status: This is the second to last chapter. I know. I'm really sad about it too, ridiculously so. I feel kind of depressed without having this story to come to, although I have a new idea for a Henry x Maggie story that I hope everyone will enjoy. I look forward to trying that out because I've never written from that perspective before. It s should be a lot shorter than this one because I will be in the IB Diploma program this September and a long-winded story like this one would just never get done. **

** This next chapter can get a bit confusing because the sense of time is a bit more than scrambled. It is supposed to be that way, simply because it is done from Maggie's perspective, and the idea of her being able to grasp time completely just after regaining consciousness is really far-fetched in my opinion. Despite al the really surreal situations that have occurred in my story, I want it to be realistic from some standpoints, including the sort-of-medical-one.**

** As a fun piece of trivia: The way I write about regaining consciousness in this chapter is based both off of my one experience coming out of general anesthesia when I was a child and my experience a few months back where I fainted during class and hit my head and how I felt when I was regaining consciousness. I tried to use these experiences to guide what I was writing about.**

** And now, I bring to you the penultimate chapter of Dripping Seconds! Enjoy!**

Maggie's point of view:

"Maggie, sweetheart, you can't go to sleep. You can't be asleep. Wake up. Wake up, Maggie. You can't go to sleep." A voice was repeating this mantra over and over, near enough to be that I could find the shape of the words, but not enough that I could tell who was speaking. I was aware of light on the other side of my eyelids, the sort of light that would be way too bright if I opened my eyes and looked at it, and the wailing of a siren somewhere nearby. _Ambulance…?_ I thought. My thoughts were sluggish and cloudy. I couldn't think.

All of a sudden, I felt a pressure around my hand, as though someone was holding it. I didn't feel it being grasped, I was sure that the pressure had already been there beforehand, but I hadn't been aware of it. The voice was louder, more insistent, though no closer to me than before. My mind was becoming slightly more alert. "Maggie, wake up! Wake up for me, please wake up, you can't sleep, you've been hypothermic. You need to wake up. Open your eyes. Open your eyes, Maggie. You're in an ambulance." I realized that I had been correct about the siren. "You're in an ambulance," the voice continued. "You're in an ambulance, and you're going to the hospital. It is your father. I am your dad. Wake up."

The voice, which had been growing louder and louder during the course of its speaking, suddenly began to tune out, as though someone was turning a dial that was in control of my ears, and was turning the volume down. The light on the other side of my eyelids winked out, and the pressure on my hand left suddenly, although I was sure, out there, in the real world, my dad was still holding onto my hand. "Maggie," the voice pleaded again. "Maggie, please wake up. Please wake up…" the voice faded out into an indistinct blur, followed immediately by the siren. And then I faded out, drifting, floating into darkness.

When I next heard the voices, they were different, there were more of them, and I didn't hear my father. Someone was holding my head steady, having removed the bandages over the side of my temple, which I didn't remember having or needing. I was sure that the bandage was somewhat important, I just didn't remember how or why. A voice from farther away was speaking, male, and it was unfamiliar to me, which caused me to feel afraid. "I want to get an MRI done, just in case. We can't know if he hit her head in any way, or if she tripped at any point, or if something completely unrelated happened with her injuries. Just keep the electric blanket on her until she goes into the MRI; I think the wires might behave strangely if it goes in with her. She's still cold, but it's only mild hypothermia now, so we don't have to worry so much so long as the room is decently warm. Do put the blanket back over her when you're done though."

Another voice, female, familiar though I couldn't remember who it was, attached to the hands that we holding my head steady began speaking. "Its no longer dangerous that she is sleeping, is it, now that she is warmed up?" The other doctor confirmed that no, it was not, that I was sleeping because I had been drugged. I didn't remember being drugged. I was frightened at this, but couldn't move to react to my fear. I wanted to open my eyes and sit up and demand an explanation, but I couldn't figure out how to move. I held still and felt my bed being pushed somewhere else, away from the male voice, towards where I assumed the MRI rom was. I was sure that I had had an MRI before. The female voice had released my head and was pushing the bed, one hand around one of my wrists. I didn't remember who she was, but I knew I knew her and she was safe, so I relaxed slightly, praying that I would be able to move again soon.

"Maggie, it's me. Doctor Terry. I don't know if you can hear me, we aren't sure how conscious you are right now, but if you can, I am the doctor who has done your MRIs in the past, and we talked when you were last in the hospital. You are safe. You are no longer in severe danger of hypothermia, and can sleep if you need to. We are simply checking your head as a precaution, because we can't know if you hurt it our not. If you can hear me, it is okay to go to sleep, you don't need to be awake for the MRI, we can take care of it without having you awake." She gently squeezed my arm, and I found myself glad for the physical contact for some reason. It helped alleviate the fear of being alone, unable to move to get free of the remainder of the darkness. "Okay. We're going into the MRI room now. It's going to be fine. You're safe, don't worry."

The bed stopped, and I felt her remove the warm blanket that had been over me. I felt somewhat cold without it, and was unhappy that it was being removed. She carefully slid one arm under my shoulders and one under my knees, briefly lifting me up and putting me down on the MRI table. She wanted to try to make communication one more time before starting the procedure. "Maggie? You with me?"

I mumbled something, trying to confirm that I could hear her and that I was conscious, but it came out unintelligible. My tongue felt too heavy, completely useless in my mouth, much to my dismay. She took my hand, trying for another alternative to communication, and I tried to squeeze it, managing to press my fingers lightly against the back of her hand. "Hey, you," she said softly. "Glad to have you with us. Did you hear me earlier?" I squeezed her hand again. "Okay, one squeeze means yes, two squeezes no. " I squeezed her hand once. "Okay, good. You can go to sleep if you want; I'm just going to run an MRI. Wait. Can you open your eyes for me? I want to check if your pupils are even. It helps to check for any potential head injuries, though I'm pretty sure you don't have a head injury."

I mumbled something again, and opened my eyes. My vision was ridiculously blurry, and I couldn't see even large shapes very well, but I could see her looking into my eyes. Her face was rather close to mine, something that made me feel slightly uncomfortable. "Your pupils are even. That's very good. Okay, you can close your eyes again." I closed my eyes again; glad to remove the strange version of the world from my attention. "This will be a lot like last time, we'll do a normal MRI and then one with contrast images, with the butterfly needle again, okay?" I squeezed her hand, even though I wasn't really happy at the prospect of having to lie down for so long. My memories of my last MRI were coming back to me. "Okay, good. You can go to sleep now, if you want." I felt her put the earplugs in, and then put the padding underneath my knees, carefully doing the straps that would keep me still. My hearing was becoming fuzzy, and I felt her release my hand and heard her speak softly into the microphone. I didn't respond. I was exhausted, and still felt cold, wishing I still had the electric blanket. I felt myself shiver a couple times, and then went to sleep.

I awoke again to a cold feeling inside me, and jerked suddenly, trying to get up. I couldn't move, and I began to panic. "Maggie, Maggie, calm down. It's the saline solution, for the contrast. It's okay, sweetie, it's okay," the doctor said, grabbing my arms and holding them at my sides. "It's okay, calm down. I'm not hurting you. I'm not trying to hurt you. It's okay." I calmed down, and opened my eyes, struggling to focus them on her. "He gave you a lot of that stuff. It's making you confused. It wasn't enough to be considered an overdose, but it was a lot. You'll be really out of it for some time. You're confused, and the feeling scared you, and I'm sorry. The MRI is almost done. Can you go back to sleep for me?" She was talking into the microphone, which was wired into my earplugs. I felt too shaky, full of adrenaline, to sleep again, and I tried to sit up again, but I was still strapped down to the MRI table, and couldn't get up. "Don't try to sit up. It's okay." She was removing the needle. "I'm done putting in the contrast. Go back to sleep if you can. I'm going to put you back into the MRI machine, close your eyes, okay?" I closed my eyes, and I felt her leave, and then felt myself being fed into the MRI tube. I was too alert to sleep, but the medication slowly wore down my nerves and I felt myself tumble into blackness.

I heard a voice later, and it sounded like Dr. Terry's. But I couldn't be sure. The voice was speaking to me through some sort of drugged fog, and it was going too slow. My mind got lost, distracted between the words. I couldn't move. I felt like I couldn't breathe, and struggled for breath. The voice changed; concerned, carefully putting it's hand to the side of my neck, speaking even slower now, as though it was trying to sooth me for some reason, trying to keep me from becoming distressed. I flinched, feeling the hand touch me the way…the way someone else, who was…who I didn't remember, had tried to choke me. I struggled to move again, and the voice grabbed my upper arms and held them down. I couldn't breathe, and the sound of my heart hammering was deafening me. There was another voice, more voices, a crowd of them near me, and one of them was rolling back my sleeve, holding down my arm, and putting a needle into me. I tried to fight them, opening my eyes, trying to clear the fuzzy film that seemed to be covering them. There were voices and lights all around me, and people were trying to hold me still.

My vision was fading out, even though my eyes were still open. My heart slowed, was it going to stop? My breathing, now that I wasn't fighting, came easier. Most of the voices left, a male doctor, someone I didn't recognize, stood near me. "Margaret? Are you conscious? Do you hear me?" I blinked at him, which he took for a yes. "Margaret, I'm not sure what just happened. I think you were panicking for some reason and were having trouble breathing because you were panicking. We gave you a shot, which I think scared you even more, which makes sense because I'm sure it brought back memories of what happened to you, but it was necessary to calm you back down. It's a very mild sedative. It only lasts for about an hour, however, it's enough to keep you under long enough for the rest of the drugs in your system to officially take effect, and you won't be regaining consciousness for a little bit, okay?" I panicked at the thought of going back unconscious and tried to sit up, but he held me down. I wasn't strong enough to fight him; to yank his hands away, to make him let me up. I whimpered, frightened, and hoped desperately for someone to come and get me, to make the sleepiness go away, to get whatever they had put in me out of me.

"Stay lying down. You are going to be just fine. You need to accept that you are going to go to sleep, and that everything will be okay. You just need to sleep. You will wake up at home, you are completely fine, you were hypothermic but you are no longer hypothermic, though you might be a bit cold. Your head is healing nicely; your MRIs were completely fine, we were very glad to see that. You are going to loose consciousness in approximately five minutes, and will remain so for anywhere between four and eight hours, we can't be sure how much of the drug you have already processed in your system, because we can't know exactly how much he gave you. It was not enough that you are in any danger from a potential overdose, though. You are fine. You do not need to be frightened. I will stay here until you go to sleep, and then I will get your father, who will take you home. You will wake up at home, I think that waking up in a familiar area will help you remain calm when you regain consciousness. I don't know how much of this you will remember. You need to stay inside and not get cold again for a couple days, and you need to be careful about your head still. We will have the stitches removed in about a week, with another MRI. I don't know if you will remember these instructions, so I will pass them on to your father. Okay?"

I didn't want to go unconscious. I didn't want to go in the darkness for so long. I struggled against him, trying to sit up, trying to get someone, anyone to come help me, to keep me from going into the blackness. "Margaret, I need you to calm down. It's going to take into effect soon, and you can't change that. Please calm down. It won't hurt. Please calm down."

I felt myself getting more tired, even more exhausted, and I stopped fighting, lying back down. He took his hands off of my shoulders, allowing me to lie still without being held down. I still felt scared, but too tired to do anything about it. A blackness was coming up over my eyes, dimming my vision, causing the inside of my mind to flicker strangely, as though someone had lit a candle in it and was blowing a breeze over it, and the breeze was causing the flame to flick back and forth inside me. I focused on the candle instead of the approaching darkness. The darkness was like a wet cloth, coming closer and closer, threatening to snuff out the candle. The darkness was coming closer, and the flame was fainter, fainter. The cloth was dropping over it, I couldn't move it, and I found my eyes closing as the cloth fell over the candle and I plunged into shallow darkness.

But the darkness wasn't complete, wasn't as thick as before. My eyes were closed, but the world was not gone. It was as though I was lying in bed, waiting to drift off, and was falling asleep but was still slightly aware of the world outside of myself. I heard the doctor give a sigh of relief, and heard his footsteps tapping towards the doorway, and I was alone. By myself, I found myself beginning to panic again, but I wasn't strong enough to try to fight the cloth, to bring back the flame that had given me that much comfort. I felt as though I was holding onto some edge, trying not to fall off, or was going slowly down an elevator into different floors of the darkness, steadily going deeper and deeper in, unable to stop myself, but still frightened of the inevitable ground.

There room was silent, so silent that I could still hear my heartbeat somewhere below me, and my breathing rustle inside my chest, the airstream leaving me and skirting along the edge of the pillow, blowing off the edge and falling to the floor, only to be lost until before it made it to the ground. I could feel the cold metal bars on the side of the hospital bed against the back of one of my hands. I could feel one foot lying on top of the other. I could feel the sheets against me, faintly scratchy and bleached, smelling sterile and very clean near my face. I was not asleep. But I was not really alert. I noticed things without realizing I was noticing them, and they darted out of my mind as soon as they entered. The elevator went down another floor, and the light shining orange through my eyelids dimmed to blackness, and I couldn't feel the sheets and myself and the cold metal bars like I had just moments before. I was scared, but I could hear my heartbeat, still slow, still steady, and my breathing, still calm, unaffected by my terror, as though once again it was all happening to someone else, that none of this was really happening to me. And as I listened, my heartbeat and my breathing grew louder, until it swallowed me up, and I finally let go of the precarious edge I had been clinging to, allowing myself to fall into my own internal workings, the sound of my own life. The elevator plunged deep into the blackness.

There was a brief internal transition, a switch between medications, or perhaps just a lapse of some sort, where I did feel and hear again, regaining some amount of awareness of the world. "Is she okay?" Jasper was saying near me. "Why is she asleep?" I heard my father explaining that I would be unconscious for several hours due to the drug I had been given, and I heard Jasper offer to stay near me. I felt my father settle me carefully on a bed of blankets near what felt like a lit fireplace, and I felt Jaspertake my hand. I wondered faintly why I was not in some sort of bed, and if all of the beds were occupied, but then was distracted by the pressure around my hand, the sudden warmth of someone else touching me that I hadn't felt in the hospital, not in a comforting sort of way, since Dr. Terry was preparing me for the MRI. Comforted in not being alone, I let myself drop off without being concerned about the darkness. It was easier, and the doctor was right. It did not hurt me.

It felt like hours later when I finally felt the beginnings of clear-headedness. My eyes felt sticky and gummed together, and my mouth was unbearably dry, but I was warm and no longer very tired. My mind was somewhat clear, I could think and understand what was going on around me. The fire, which had been going near me when I was previously aware of things, was out, the warmth from it was gone, leaving a smoky sort of smell, and I felt someone holding my hand. I could feel the slight warmth of winter sunlight on my face, so I assumed it was late morning or maybe early afternoon. I mumbled something quietly to the person who was holding my hand, my mouth too dry to make any real sort of conversation.

I heard a stirring near me, on the other side of the fire from me, to my back, and hoped Jasper, that's who I was assuming it was, was aware that I was trying to make a conversation, not just mumbling in my sleep. I felt him squeeze my hand, his hand was slightly warmer than mine, but mine didn't seem too cold anymore. I remembered that one of his hands had been broken, so I assumed he wasn't using the broken hand, because I couldn't feel a bandage and it didn't feel swollen, like it would if it had been broken. He would know better than to do that, to squeeze something in his broken hand. "Hey, Maggie," he whispered softly, very gently, more gently than I had heard his voice in a long time. It was Jasper, I realized with sudden relief. He hadn't left me when I was asleep, he had stayed with me like he told my dad he would. I wasn't alone; I hadn't been alone, even when I was in the darkness. "Hey, Maggie. You okay? You awake?"

I cracked my eyes open, seeing the burnt-out remains of what had been in the fireplace, the burnt wood and the scattered ashes. Jasper was to my other side. I squeezed his hand, and he leaned over so that our faces were very slightly apart, close enough that my still slightly blurry vision didn't affect his face. He smiled very widely when he saw that my eyes were open and I was alert. "Hey. You're awake. How are you feeling? You've been asleep for like six hours."

I opened my mouth to speak, but found it too dry. I swallowed a couple times, trying to make my mouth and throat less dry, but there wasn't enough moisture inside me. I made a frustrated face at Jasper. "You stay here," he said. "I'll go get you some water, okay?" I nodded slightly, and he stood up, releasing my hand, and walked over to his kitchen. We were at his house. I hadn't noticed before. I wondered if everyone was here. The house had a packed feeling, there were too many sleeping bags spread across the floor, as though too many people had been in the area for a period of time.

Jasper came back and helped me to sit up, handing me a cup of water in a blue glass cup. I drank slowly, scared for some reason that if I drank too quickly, I would throw up. My stomach felt very empty, and I felt somewhat weak from the medication and the sleeping. My mouth felt a lot less dry, and I smiled at him. "Thank you," I whispered. He smiled and took the empty glass from me, putting it on the mantle so that it wouldn't break. Then, he sat down next to me so that our shoulders touched and took my hands in his.

"How are you feeling?" he said, trying to contain some level of desperation in his voice. "Are you okay? Does anything hurt? What happened at the hospital? Are you okay?" His voice was rushed, and he seemed panicked, all of a sudden his eyes were wide and he was squeezing my hands without seeing to notice it. I elbowed him in the side gently, causing him to look at me, surprised, and stop the stream of questions long enough for my mind to begin to find answers for them.

"I'm fine. Jasper." I couldn't get my mouth to work enough to talk very much; it was still sort of dry even though I had just had water. "I'm fine. Promise."

He wrapped his arms around me, pulling me suddenly against his chest. "I know. I was just so worried. You were asleep for a long time…and when I found you outside I thought you were…I thought there was something…I thought something had happened."

"Jasper, I'm perfect-"

He cut me off, not allowing me to tell him that I was 'perfectly fine', instead cutting me off on 'perfect'. "I know. I've known all along."


	53. Chapter 53

Chapter Fifty-Three

**Thank you.**

Maggie's point of view:

I guess the fact that I can find my own footprints easily and clearly is a tribute to how few people actually visit graveyards. Standing in front of my mother's grave, I can see my footprints again where I stood and then knelt in front of her gravestone. I can see William's footprints come up behind me from behind a tree from where he had been watching me. I can see both our footprints head towards the ditch. I would be able to see Jasper's footprints, if I followed them, and Whitney's and Henry's and those of the policemen. I don't though.

The similarities of everything suddenly hit me, the way I am standing, the way I am dressed, my surroundings. I feel my heart sputter quickly in my chest, and I am filled with an urge to turn around, to run back home. Instead I look at her gravestone, at the snow that has collected since I brushed it off on my last visit. Other gravestones are half-buried, or so eroded that you wouldn't be able to see the names without being smothered by snow. The footsteps behind me momentarily cause me to stiffen, but I remember who is behind me, and I calm down again.

"Do you remember the funeral?" I say, turning to face Jasper. He is standing just behind me and to the side, probably trying to give me some amount of space or privacy. He looks at me, surprised to hear me speak so suddenly, or maybe to hear me speak at all. He had been to the funeral, standing just behind me as he was now, dressed in a black jacket and black pants that he would later admit were terribly uncomfortable. He hadn't mentioned it at the time. I wonder if, watching me bury my mother, he had thought about his own. I wonder if he could have been jealous for the sense of closure I was getting, and jealous that I knew, at least, that my mother didn't mean to leave me, didn't do it willingly. I was still looking at him, waiting for his answer.

"I remember it," he confirms. I nod. It had scared me for some reason, the thought that only I remembered the funeral, because my memories were blurred, filled with shock and fear and despair, and I couldn't remember it well. I needed to remember it. It was the last thing I had of my mother, though I hadn't seen her. We didn't want the casket opened, she wouldn't have looked like my mother, but she was in the box, and it was the last memory I had where she was there, not under the ground, but there, somewhat in front of me.

It had been cold that day. I was wearing a black dress for the funeral, and I felt the cold through the dress, though it wasn't snowing at the time. I remember my father wrapping his arm around me, and watching my frozen breath go over the coffin. I wasn't crying, because it didn't seem like it was really happening. I hadn't been able to accept that it had really happened yet, as much as everyone else around me seemed to have. They said it would come with time, that it was always hard for children. _What is? What is hard for children? _I had demanded of them, and they had only looked at me with sad eyes, shook their heads, and told my father that that was what they meant. I had stopped asking. I was smart enough to know that they weren't giving me an answer.

I decide to think about something else. I think not about everything that had happened, but about what couldn't happen any more. William and his men were gone, trapped in jail, unable to hurt any of us anymore. William had survived being shot, but had been hospitalized, kept under a watched guard for two days. He had been moved to the prison yesterday. They had only let me outside today, when they deemed that I was warm enough not to be at risk of hypothermia again, and that everything was official, that it was over and it was safe for Jasper and I to go visit my mother so that I could tell her that it was over.

I kneel down in front of the stone, much as I had the last time. "Mom, it's Maggie. A lot has happened. William is in jail now, and I survived him trying to kill me the last time I was here. Everything is okay, and it's over. His men are also in jail. We finally got justice for you, Mom, and I'm safe. Dad's safe. Jasper's safe. Henry's safe. Mr. Bartlett's safe. Whitney's safe. Whitney's mom is safe. Henry's parents are safe. Whitney's little sisters are safe. We're safe. It's finally over."

The graveyard is silent. Jasper is still standing at a distance behind me. I close my eyes and lean my forehead against the cold stone. I can see, in my minds eye, a little twelve-year-old me, her dark hair back over her shoulders and her black dress, too long for her short legs, dragging its hem along the snow and nearly tripping her small, black-dress-shoe incased feet. Her face is very pale, contrasting against her dark hair and dark eyes. She stands before me, looking at me; a part of me that never left me; never was able to leave. Just behind her is a girl only a few days younger, wearing a bright reddish-orange top and jeans, her dark hair is also back over her shoulders, but her face is less pale, her cheeks are slightly pink. She smiles at me.

A figure comes up behind the younger girl, the smiling girl. My mother, dressed just as she was the last day she was alive in a soft blue blouse and jeans. She leans down, as she did in real life, to whisper something into the smiling girl's ear. Her hair brushes the girl's face, and her necklace hangs out, suspended in front of her. The same necklace the sits like a lump of ice against my collar bone right now. The girl smiles at her mother, and I feel my insides get warm and cold as I'm filled with a sudden desire to go back to those days, the days of late-night-movies when Dad wasn't home and ice-cream runs in the summer when it was so hot we would stick to the chairs. The sad, pale girl seems to mirror my feelings; her shoulders turn inward as though fending off some sort of sensation of fear or sadness. As I watch, as shape materializes behind her, but it is not our mother, but a young Jasper, wearing his uncomfortable black pants and his shirt with the black jacket. He stands just behind the girl, and I notice that, though her eyes are downcast, her hair now blocking the view of the side of her face, Jasper is watching her, and several times reaches out as though to touch her shoulder, only to draw back his hand and stuff it into his pocket, feeling confused.

When I open my eyes again I realize that I had been crying. My tears had run down my face, and some of them had gone onto the stone somehow, sticking to my mother's gravestone. I try to pick them off with my nail, trying to remove the frozen tears, and failed. Jasper crouches down next to me and helps me scrape them off. "You okay?" he asks me, putting his hand on my shoulder much as the younger him wanted to in my minds eye. I lean my head on his shoulder, the snow collected on the crease on his shoulder causing my ear to go numb. "I know. It just opens up sometimes, doesn't it?" I nod against his shoulder. "Sometimes things do that. My mom used to do that? Not anymore." There is a harsh element to his voice that I hadn't heard before. Iron sharpens iron, and the words that are said sharpen the words of response.

"It feels new again," I confide in him. "I accepted it before, after awhile. I accepted that she was dead years ago. But it was easier…to believe it was just an accident. That it could have happened to anyone, that it does, every year other people die for the same reasons, tiny mechanical flaws, tiny things that we would never have been able to see. And it was easier to believe…that it was just a tragic accident. That it could have been anyone on the road that day. It just felt like bad luck, not a personal attack, and I always knew that there was nothing I could of done or Dad could of done to stop it from happening, it was just the way life was. And I've lost that. She should have made it home that day. She should have been fine. She should still be here. It wasn't a bizarre accident, it was murder, he caused her death, and if he hadn't done anything it wouldn't have happened…she could still be here…she could still be here…" I feel the tears come again, squeezing out of the corners of my eyes, and fall silent for a few seconds before finding my voice again. "Thank you for being there," I tell Jasper. "At the funeral…and afterwards. Thank you." _And Mom? I'm with Jasper now…Jasper and I are together…I think you always knew that someday we would be together. We were too stupid to know as children but I think you could see and that's why you had me ride home with them the day…the day you died. But we're together now, and I'm glad for it Mom…I love him Mom, I love him. I think I always did but I know it now. I know it now, and I'm glad._

"I remember you at the funeral," Jasper said. I turned my head on his shoulder to look at him, asking him with my eyes to explain. "You looked like it wasn't really happening, like you hadn't accepted it was actually happening to you. You looked like you were sleepwalking, and you were so pale you looked like a ghost in that black dress. But I also thought you looked so pretty even looking all pale and everything…I wanted to tell you that but I was pretty sure you would snap out of it long enough to punch me in the face, and that would have made quite the scene…" He trails off, and I think back to him staring at me that day, something I was aware of even through the haze that was in my head at the time. I think back to my memory of how I looked, pale and incased in that heavy, too-long black dress and black-shoes, and try to see where he would have found any sort of beauty in me. I fail, but obviously he did. "I always thought you were pretty," Jasper continues. "Even when we were young. My methods of letting you know were not very polite."

I giggle. "You were horrible. Horrible child. No wonder I didn't like you at all. But you were very nice to me after it happened…and I like you a lot now…" I trail off again, thinking again of the funeral. It's hard to think of anything different when looking at the gravestone. I had been standing at the front with Dad as the preacher spoke, and at one point we were all supposed to sing 'Amazing Grace' at the end of the ceremony. In the middle of the ceremony the fact that she was gone suddenly hit me, and I, unable to breathe, foolishly believed that there were words stuck in my throat. I struggled, trying to get them out of me, and when I was able to make a sound again, it turns out that the words that had been lodged were the lyrics of 'Amazing Grace'. In a pause between the preacher's sentences, I began to sing, and everyone fell silent.

I can see it vividly as I kneel in front of my mother's gravestone, as though I am in an out-of-body experience. I can see my young, grieving self, and she is standing in front of a crowd, Jasper right behind me, and my father to my side. I can see her looking at the coffin with confusion, as though she didn't understand what was happening to her, what the big wooden coffin had to do with her and her father. And I, as though I am standing on the other side of the coffin from her, can see the dawning fear and pain in her eyes, the sudden horrified realization that what she was seeing was real. I could see her gasp for air, trying to breath, and then, with a shaky, high-pitched and pained voice, began to sing.

"_Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved…"_

Her voice then broke, and she began crying into her hands, covering her eyes and putting down her head so that she couldn't be seen. She knew everyone was looking at her though, and quickly spun around, forcing her way through to crowd of black-cloaked people and sprinted out of the graveyard, where she would run to her porch to sit there and look at the stars.

And in the stars she would see a constellation all of her own, resembling her mother…

I blink several times to get back to myself, and looked upwards to the stars, finding the constellation that I had seen that day. Sure enough, it was still there, something for me alone to notice and take comfort in. But next to it was a different sort of constellation.

"Jasper? Remember when I told you I saw a constellation of my mother? After the funeral?"

"I remember."

"You couldn't see it, could you?"

"No, I couldn't."

"Well, I'm seeing a different one now."

"Where?"

"Here," I take his hand and direct it upwards, tracing the constellation with his finger for him. "I think it looks like two people kissing."

"Like what?" He says, bewildered.

Very carefully I sit up and lean in front of him, kissing him. My insides turn to slush and I feel my face begin to burn, but I don't want to stop. Eventually I had to.

"Like that."

"Oh."

"I love you, Jasper."

"I love you, Maggie."

**The End.**


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